Part Deux-- Attack of the Killer Fart, Cows, and Nerdiness

Day 2: An Experiment With Barriers, Cows, and Flatulence

Some of you may be wondering about my sanity with that title. You'll understand why it's called that if you keep reading. 

When your day starts out like this:

You know you're in for a weird one.

We made a spontaneous decision to scrap our previously made plans to go to the Cliffs of Moher for the same trip for less money and also included more sites to see! The bus ride took us through Galway all the way to the mini cliffs before the actual stunning ones. The mini ones were just as terrifying and beautiful. 

 

As we traveled on the bus to the Cliffs I realized that bus drivers in Ireland are slightly insane. I also had no idea a HUGE bus could take sharp turns and corners that quickly without tumbling over the edge to our deaths. Props to them.

The first thing we saw as we climbed to the top of the hill was a castle just sitting on the edge of the cliffs and then we turned in the other direction and saw the famous cliffs. It was SO NICE that we actually had sunny weather. It was absolutely stunning.

For those of you unfamiliar with weather in the UK and Ireland.. this was a miracle.

There were signs all over the place to not climb over the stones blocking the people from the edges of the cliffs. Laura and I being rebels decided we would be safe and wanted to be different. So naturally we climbed over and overheard other tourists grumbling about our "idiocy". However we weren't in danger so personally I think they were jealous.

We also had great fun at the castle. We decided not to go up the castle because paying 2 euros to climb some stairs was not worth it. We already had a great video. Me being a parkour fanatic I decided to climb part of the wall. As I blissfully bounded to the doorway where I wanted to do this and old man set in his ways came out of the doorway and as he walked by me he let out the mother of all farts RIGHT ON ME. Needless to say I was not happy. Laura captured the moment perfectly...

But in the end I achieved the parkour stunt once the noxious gases subsided...

We decided to go off the beaten path and go along the cliffs where a few other people were headed. The views were amazing and completely worth the off road walking. We got views such as these:

 

Derek for some reason decided he had a new found love for cows. This is also calf season and mother cows are not the most welcoming during this time... He went into the field and harassed them all as a mother cow stared him down like he was about to take her calf to the butcher. He survived and felt the wrath of his fiance for almost getting trampled.

Moving on, our next stop on the way back to Galway was Poulnabrone Dolmen. It is a 5000 year old tomb. I was the only person on the bus excited about it. I was sitting at the very back of the bus and beat 3/4 of the people off the bus and literally ran to see it. Yes I am a HUGE nerd. But hey, it was COOL. 

I jumped around on the rocks after that and managed to twist my ankle. I also found a hole that "was made for my butt" according to Derek. After this I calmed down a little since my daily dose of nerd was satiated. We did stop at a scenic castle on the way back!

Stay tuned for part 3 the grand finale!

Pubs, Football, Cliffs! Oh My!

I've done it again! I went to Ireland. However, one thing is different. I went with my best friends and saw some really cool things I never got a chance to see. What's not to like? Well... it wouldn't be a vacation with me if weird things didn't happen. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for one heck of an interesting trip play by play. Don't worry I won't sit you down and show you a slideshow of all 659 pictures. Phew!

Day 1 & 2: A Journey of Epic Proportions

Many of you may not realize just how complicated it can be to get from London to a hostel in Dublin. Here's what we did and what you shouldn't do since it's overly complicated (but totally fun)

1. Underground from flat to Euston train station. For the non-Londoners that means a LOT of stairs with suitcases.
2. Train to Holyhead, Wales (3 hours of sitting fun... separated from everyone else since we didn't get seats together). It also meant I passed out for most of it.
3. Bus to ferry lobby
4. Stairs to another bus which took us to the ferry. Redundant much?
5. Ferry that made Laura and I sick. BUT... drum roll please.... I saw a SHARK. Yes I freaked out more than I should have, but hey I was excited and it turns out extreme excitement can momentarily cure seasickness.
6. Shuttle to terminal and a taxi ride to hostel where the taxi driver got lost in the city he grew up in.

Oddly enough we were tired by the end of that. (sarcasm for those who didn't pick up on it)

However being the true English ex patriots were are we decided to go see the sites and go out drinking. We made the fantastic choice to follow the music. We ended up in a tiny 2 story pub that had live music every night. We heard one of the best folk blues bands I have ever heard. Those guys can play some guitar.

We even got to meet one of them!

The next day we spent exploring Dublin. Everyone else went to the Guinness Storehouse and had a blast. I spent the day attempting to find some sort of museum/attraction that was open. Absolutely nothing was. I spent the day walking around Dublin in a futile search. Needless to say it was not the best first half of the day.

That night consisted of transport to Galway which was much easier than the trek I described earlier. We got in the football spirit and went in search of a pub that was playing the Ireland Euro cup game. We joined in yelling at the tvs and the Irish spent the rest of the night drinking until they had no more feelings or memory of the sad loss. We had an early night because the next day was nothing short of EPIC.

Next stop: the Cliffs of Moher!!!         Stay tuned for the next blog update in 2-3 days! This will most likely be a series of 3 parts.