Ireland = Amazing in every way possible.

First, I'd like to mention how gross traveling makes me feel. For one, hostel showers are very sketchy, so often we don't use them and end up greatly regretting this decision later. I am all sorts of gross and there is a line for the shower. So I guess I'll blog.

Wow. Ireland was gorgeous. From what Azelie told me I thought I was going to be dissapointed with Belfast since it didn't seem as populated and interesting as Dublin, but she forgot to mention how absolutely beautiful it is up there. Okay, not the city really, that was kind of sketchy and gross, but the tour we took of the Giant's Causeway was spectacular.

Okay, those of you who didn't know my travel plans for this past weekend: Our friend Shaunagh's dad grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. So we all decided to go with her for the weekend, even though we didn't know exactly what was there. My good friend Azelie, from home in Hatfield, is studying in Dublin (Ireland, not Northern Ireland) and I've been dying to visit her, so Jill decided to spend a night with me in Dublin. When we arrived at the Dublin International Airport, Jill and I took a bus into town, and the rest (Shaunagh, Shawna, Heather, Nick, Whitney, and Megan) took another bus up to Belfast. It took Jill and I a fairly long time to find our Hostel, but when we finally did we were greeted by an adorable German boy who became our travel buddy for the rest of our stay in Dublin. His plane had been delayed or something so he had to stay in Dublin on his way back to Germany. It was really cool to talk to him and get a different view on America from someone our age. I don't think I'd really made friends with an ACTUAL EUROPEAN yet (I tend to get shy and think no one likes me because I'm American, so I don't start conversations often), so it was really interesting for me. Yay for international friends! His university isn't too far from our Castle, so there's a chance we may see him again before we trek on back to America.

Then Azelie appeared and hugged me for a good ten minutes straight. Her friend from school, Amanda, was also visiting. She is doing a semester in Spain. So we bar hopped for a while. It was a Thursday night, so there weren't too many people out, but it was really fun. I don't like Guiness beer, I have decided. It tastes like what dirty cat litter smells like. But Azelie introduced me to this beer and black currant liquor mix that is called a Snakebite, those were good. I wish I had been able to spend more time with her, I really miss her a lot. But she's going to Amsterdam the same weekend me and Aaron are going, so I'll probably see her at least once there.

The next morning Jill and I woke up to one of our roommates shaving his chest in the morning light coming through the window. Hostels are quite interesting like that. There's usually lots of people in a tiny space and from many different backgrounds. Chest-Shave-Man didn't speak much English, we think he was from Spain. So anyway, Jill and I packed up, got some lunch, said bye to Sam (German boy) and got on a train to Belfast. We found our hostel pretty quickly, it was really nice. Almost like a hotel with bunk beds. Megan had got us a private room, so we didn't have to lock our bags in cages like the last hostel. Then we took a nap. Got dinner. Went to the pub with the rest of our group who had just gotten back from getting tattoos.

The next morning we got up painfully early and hopped on a bus to the Giant's Causeway. It was so beautiful. We stopped at a lot of pretty places. I will try to get pictures up soon, I'm really behind in getting the non-facebook pictures up. I need to switch picture websites since I'm out of room on my flickr account. Anyway, first we stopped at Carrick-a-Rede, this beautiful little bit of land by the sea with all these land masses sticking out of the water. To get to one of them you have to cross this tiny rope bridge over a cliff. It was awesome. We also stopped to take pictures of these old castle ruins before finally heading up to the Causeway. When we were not even two minutes from the spot, our tour bus hit a car. This took some time. It would have been hilarious if it hadn't cut into our touring time. But finally we got there and it was beautiful. Again, by the sea, huge land masses, but between the two there's these volcanic formations. It's just a really pretty spot, it's hard to put into words. Pictures, soon.

So, that was Ireland. It was definately amazing. Now I have to shower and study for midterms, ugh! Next weekend we're going to Amsterdam, but aparently plans have changed and now we're only going for one day. But I guess that's fine because Aaron and I will be there in two weeks and it'll leave more stuff for us to see together :) I'm really excited, I miss him so much. I can't wait to show him my castle and Well and just everything. And I miss Siobhan, but she can't visit. And my cats. And my family. I'm getting homesick pretty bad. But if I break it into parts it doesn't seem to long. Amsterdam next weekend, then Switzerland (don't freak mom: I may go paragliding! I am so excited! I know Dad would be rooting me on to do it) and the ski trip, then Aaron visits, then it's the Prague trip, after 5 days in Prague we have 5 days for Vienna and Italy, then I think it's Greece and that's the last weekend before I go home!

So, yeah, amazing weekend. :)