The Luck of the Irish #notdeadyet

The five things I think of when I think of Ireland:
     1. Potato famine of 1845
     2. IRA: aka terrorists & terrorism
     3. PIIGS: one of the five worst economies in the EU. (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, & Spain)
     4. green hills
     5. Irish accents
What can I say? I'm overflowing with Irish wisdom. It turns out I actually have an Irish great-great-great grandmother who snuck into my proud Scottish lineage, so I was pretty excited to see something she might have experienced.

Erica and I arrived in Ireland super late, and our luggage was very delayed in the unloading process. There was also a little girl with an Elsa from Frozen doll she bought at Disneyland Paris, which became annoying very quickly. We were surprised the car rental places were still opened, so we rented a car. We went out to the garage to find the car and after searching 3 flights of the car park, we went back to the counter for help. I momentarily panicked because there was no one there, but it turns out they were hiding behind the desk. The girl had to walk us out and point us the the area where the rental car was hiding. We hopped in the car and said a very earnest pray for safety so we would arrive to the hostel alive as I attempt to drive in the dark, on the narrow roads of Ireland, on the opposite side of the road, in a stick shift. No bid deal, right?

We arrived to the hostel around 1am, and I sent Erica in to figure out where to park the car. This is not a good idea when Erica is tired, as she gets very sleep-drunk. She came back not really knowing what was going on and confused....she may or  may not have been slurring her words too. lol. I had her wait in the car, while I went in to find out what was going on. Confession: it may have taken longer than it should have because they guy at the desk and I were flirting. Sorry Erica! It started with him commenting that I was British with an American accent (travelling with my uk passport), and I said something about "growing up in America with enough sass to prove I'm British." It just spiraled from there. Looking back, I could have had some more fun with that, but I'm not thinking clearly at 1am. I parked the car and wandered through this crazy path to get back to the hostel and had to tell them that it is the creepiest thing ever to make a girl walk that in the middle of the night alone. #wherearethegentlemen

Day 1: After minimal sleep, we had some breakfast. There were some guys sitting behind us, and I thought, "dang, they have think accents. I can't understand them at all" Only then did I realize they were speaking German. #iloveGermans We took to the town and went to one of the most beautiful things in the world: a library. We went to the Trinity College Library, and it felt like the end of a pilgrimage I didn't know I was taking. It was a bibliophile's dream. Beautiful.

We went to old churches, where I discovered that Dublin keeps the strangest things in their churches. I made a collage. I think the best is the mummified cat and mouse that they found behind an organ and then decided to frame them. We also had lunch at a pub, where I gave into their tricky marketing of Irish food. I have a theory that people will buy food, thinking it's authentic, just as long as it has the name in it. I had the "Irish Salmon Sampler".

I know, a day in Dublin? But it's it's really not that big. Erica was sickly, and I saw everything I wanted. We hopped in the car to go meet up with James in Belfast. It took about an hour of traffic to get out of Dublin. The cross over from Ireland into Northern Ireland was anticlimactic. There was just a sign announcing the speed would now be posted in miles. This was fine and dandy....except the rental did not have miles on the speedometer; it only had kilometers. I had Erica use the calculator on her phone to calculate how fast we should be driving, and with all the speed cameras on the highways, I was scared I would be getting tickets mailed to me back in America. After the traffic, a few hours of driving, my muscles cramping from shifting with my left arm, James not being where I told him, and intense hanger (that was not a mispelling), we arrived in Belfast and found James at a gas station. I bought some Lilt and McVitie's to up my blood sugar to normal levels, and then we went to "The Searcher" statue, which is a monument to C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. It is in front of the Holywood Arches Library. Nerdy-ness ensued.

Then they fed me...a kebab. I was going to post the picture of me and the kebab, but decided that's way to personal. It's a passionate love that I have for kebabs. We grabbed out GIANT kebabs and ate them in McDonald's. The kebab shop didn't provide napkins, and anyone who's seen me eat a kebab knows how much I need napkins. Omg. It was great and amazing. Everything I remember and more. Yum yum yum.

Next stop: The Dark Hedges. 

After lots of pictures at The Dark Hedges, we went onto Giant's Causeway. We parked at the hotel that was next to the entrance, and acted very nonchalant as we wandered down their path to Giant's Causeway. We took beautiful photos at sunset before leaving to try and find the hostel. We drove the street, not really seeing anything. I accidently started driving on the right side of the road before Erica corrected me. We stopped at this little B&B to ask where we were supposed to go, and it turned out that it was the hostel. The guy had these thick glasses and was completely adorable and sweet. 

Day 2: The next morning, we walked from our hostel to Giant's Causeway to get some lovely pictures. We then drove to the "rope bridge" nearby. We drove past sheep that were dyed pink, which was awesome. I should have pulled over, but the roads were so narrow, I didn't want to die.

This picture was inspired by Becca. I told her I did a bridge at The Dark Hedges, and she asked if I had done it in front of the bridge. GENIUS! This is my bridge over a bridge. I did not walk across the bridge because bridges freak me out. Rope bridges are too scary.

This is Erica and me at the Cliffs of INSANITY! We were driving and saw the visitor's area, and pulled over. The guy said there was free parking further onward and gave us directions like "turn right at the rock shop" and keep going. We drove for about 15 minutes on one lane pictures not really sure if we were going the correct way. We eventually ended up in front of a house with a sign saying you could park there. Then you walk this pathway between cow pastures, climbing over gates, to get to the cliffs.

'Twas sunset time. It was super windy, and I was so scared to be by the edge of the cliff, but we took some amazing photos.

We put the address of the hostel in our GPS, and found our way out of the windy streets faster than we got into them. We found a little restaurant to have dinner. We were so tired that we went to the hostel and went straight to bed.
Day 3: We woke up early to go see the Rock of Cashel, which is an old church/building/house of kings from the 12th century. It was pretty cool, and very cold. We drove onto Dublin for lunch, dropped James off, and then went to catch our flight back to England. Overall, I only stalled six times. I drove on the wrong side of the road once. There were times I had my foot on the gas 100% and watched the speedometer arrow decrease as we were going up hills. The road signs do not always translate too well...if Becca and I hadn't asked Lukas last year about most European road signs, I would have probably gotten us killed. Some of the roads were so winding that I had to go so slow to not die. The roads were so narrow at times, that I thought we run into the car on the opposite side of the road.  I will say, if you road-trip Ireland, you're going to need a GPS or you will die. Literally die. Even with a GPS, you may die. But you know what? I'm not dead yet!

We landed, caught the train, and walked to Kate's house. We knocked on the door, and Ben says, "what are you doing here?" He then tells us the Kate and Rachel went to meet us at the train station, and we must have just missed them. Oops. Kate made us a great dinner, because Kate is great. We had a great evening. I think the retelling to my mom of this evening is the best version. I told her that Ben and I were beating each other up and that Ben waterboarded me (you can see that I have water on my top in the post-attack photo). Mom just looks a little confused and says "Where was Kate?" I say "Oh, she was at the table playing on her iPad." She says, "Where was Rachel?" I say, "She was just chatting with Erica." My mom responded by shaking her head at me. hahaha. Ben also stole one of my shoes and hid it, promising to text me that night to tell me where it was. I forgot about  it until the morning, when we're about to leave for the airport. I cannot find my shoe. I have to FaceTime Ben at 5-something-a.m. and when I find the shoe, I accidentally knock it over into this space between the wall and the wood paneling. No one is as tall as Ben the Giant, so I gave up hope of getting my shoe back and start to pull out my sandals. Once again, proving her powers of being the coolest person ever, Kate retrieves my shoe, and we leave to the airport. Kate is kind and loving and took drove us to the airport ridiculously early in the morning. Thank you Kate!

The only other story I have to tell is that I ran into my high school friend, Adrian, in the airport train taking us to our terminal. He was with his wife and the end of their honeymoon, and we were on the same flight home. This is the second time I ran into Adrian this year with his wife. This is also the second time I ran into them looking more-or-less like a hobo. Seriously. If it was just Adrian, I would probably be okay with it, but his wife is absolutely gorgeous, and I feel like I should at least look presentable when she doesn't know me well. #awkwardstoryofmylife