Ireland wanderings

This past weekend, Gracia, Hannah, and I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland! I was worried that because it was such a short trip we be abl

e to get a good feel for the country, but it turned out to be the opposite; all the random adventures we had certainly turned into an awesome experience! Here's a basic idea of our 

whirlwind trip (with a few random details thrown in there...).

Friday:

*Got to the airport via taxi after missing the bus by 5 minutes (got there 5 minutes before the gate closed)

*Flew in to Dublin and found our way to the bus station to catch the 2 hour bus ride to Kilkenny (were the last ones on the bus right before they shut the doors, with one seat left after us)

*Arrived in Kilkenny, found our hostel, and did a little shopping on High Street

*Enjoyed the evening scenery of the castle, river (complete with swans...), side streets, and churches

*Had coffee and dessert at a fun restaurant then found a small pub advertising live music

*Listened to "the Kilkennys" (Irish accents, acoustic guitar, mandolin, celtic hand-drum, bass, and an occasional flute/pipe) play folk songs, often joined by the locals in the pub

*Slept comfortably in our hostel (which was much warmer than our hostel in Vienna!)

Saturday:

*Made breakfast in the kitchen at our hostel then went in a few shops

*Took a tour of the Kilkenny Castle (we were able to take off our coats outside because the sun was shining, it was amazing)

*Sat outside at a cafe and had coffee and scones

*Toured a historical restored house with a rooftop garden

*Enjoyed the rolling green hills out the windows on our bus trip back to Dublin

*Made it to the hotel (almost lost Hannah's wallet, but thankfully we got back to the previous bus just in time for search and rescue!)

*Went to eat in Swords, right outside of Dublin by our hotel, (had to run through the rain to get there) and enjoyed sitting and talking for the rest of the evening

Sunday:

*Took a taxi back to the airport to catch our 6:50 a.m. plane!

It was a truly enjoyable trip, even though we could've wandered around Ireland for much, much longer! This past week has meant another set of classes and such, it all goes so quickly. Although the plan was to go skiing this weekend, the details got mixed and we ended up not being able to go. However, instead we decided to make Friday Gracia's "un-birthday" since I'll be at home for my brother's wedding on her real birthday. We throughly enjoyed coffee, Thai massages, and an evening at the Statni Opera where we watched La Traviata!

I promise, we really do go to school here too :)

Love you all and miss you,

Laura