IRELAND!!

I just got back last night from a 5 day trip to Ireland. I would have blogged during the trip but I had very limited internet access. I didn't take my laptop with me. I basically lived out of a backpack for 5 days. I was pretty proud of myself for that because I am usually such an overpacker.
So we flew from Brussels to Dublin last Friday. We got in pretty late at night but we were all excited to be in Ireland! On the plane over we were in the company of a whole slew of Irish pre-teens. It was way cool to talk to them and interact with them because they are so different. They all had a very punky clothing style but you could tell that it really fit them. They also seemed very mature. They bought newspapers to read on the plane, had political opinions about America, and were giving us advice on where to eat out in Dublin. I thought it was crazy how mature they seemed. When we finally got off the plane and out into the city, we had a lot to figure out since we had never been there before. We were all pretty excited that almost everyone spoke English. I kept catching myself trying to slip in small French phrases for "thank you" and "excuse me" though. I thought it was funny because usually English is my default for everything.
We stayed the first night in Dublin and the next day traveled to Cork by train. We explored the city a bit and ended up taking a bus to Blarney to see the Castle. We took a bus to get there. It was way different to have traffic running on the left side of the road. It kind of throws you for a loop because for the first bit you always look the wrong way when crossing the street. By the time we left Ireland, I was used to riding the buses on the left though. Blarney Castle was pretty cool but it was just another tourist thing.
The next day we hopped a bus to Killarney, which was a cool little town that one of our friends who had been traveling before us found. It wasn't a big place or anything but it had a lot of cool shops. We went exploring there. They have some sort of national park on the edge of the town and it was absolutely beautiful country. It was all so green and peaceful. We spent several hours walking around there. There was a gorgeous lake and lovely walking paths.
The next day we made our way to Galway. At first, I didn't like Galway at all because compared to Killarney it was such a city and I loved seeing the country. We found a hostel right away and were warned that it was Ragweek in Galway. Apparently all of the college students were off of school for the week. We were told that it was originally started so that they could raise money for charity, this piece of information coming from one of the elderly men that worked at the hostel. However, it had turned into a week for all of the students to get wasted and then trashed on top of that. We witnessed it first hand. There were young people all over the streets, dressed in ridiculous outfits. We arrived in the city around 2 in the afternoon and most of them were already drunk or well on their way. It was an interesting sight but almost a little scary at the same time. The party got even more rambunctious as the night went on. It looked like chaos. I have never seen such a thing. My group went to a pub in the area and listened to the band. I was so excited when they played Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" for us Americans. That was probably my favorite thing about Galway... other than the flame thrower in the middle of the street.
The next morning we took a bus to the Cliffs of Moher. They were absolutely beautiful. Words can't even describe and pictures don't do them justice.We had almost two hours to walk around them and take pictures. It was a very sobering experience and not one to forget. From there we made our way back to Galway in order to catch another bus back to Dublin. Once we were back in Dublin, we basically just killed time until our flight the nest morning. We were there the night of Mardi Gras but there didn't seem to be much going on, especially compared to Galway.
We flew out of Dublin on Wednesday afternoon. We were all pretty sad to leave Ireland but so glad that we had the chance to visit there. Everyone talks about the horrible rainy weather in Ireland but we were lucky and didn't have to break out an umbrella once. When we got back to Brussels, however, it was cold and wet. I still don't understand how we came back south from Ireland and it got colder. Oh well.