not seagulls, wales.

today has been a wonderful day! i love wales! at first, i wasn't so sure about it because i don't know much about the history or the sites that are here. but it has been amazing so far. 

we woke up early this morning (5:30 am) to be checked out of our hostel by 6:30. we ate that disgusting breakfast one last time and went out to the bus. nearby was the port for the ferry we were going to take to wales. it was so interesting because all of us were sitting IN the bus as it pulled onto the ferry. as we were pulling on, i was reminded of the movie deja vu (with denzel washington, ever seen it?) it's a great flick, but in it, there is a ferry and it blows up! it scared me a little bit but we made it safe and sound. 

hilary and i loaded the ferry and we could hardly walk we were so tired. we found the best seats, well actually benches, and we plopped our stuff down and fell asleep for the whole ferry ride! like two hours. haha. everyone else was playing games and now they are so tired but me and hilary are feeling great!

it was a small, winding road to get to our small town of beaumaris. there may have been some throwing up of some girls, not me though. 

we headed straight to the beaumaris castle. i was thinking, oh great another castle, but this one is my favorite one so far! 

it was so beautiful and different than the ones in ireland. there was a large grass courtyard area in the middle and the castle was surrounded by a small water trench. way cool. 

we are also in an amazing hotel. and compared to the hostel, it's even more amazing! we are close by the beach and that makes it better. dinner was served to us, provided by the hotel, and it was phenomenal. i'm not kidding. this tops the bagel with peanut butter and bananas. haha! 

choices of fruit or bacon & lentil (remind you of marcel the shell? watch it on youtube!), pork or tuna for a main course and some dessert choices. 

i went with the fruit that was presented gourmet style and a perfectly cooked pork cuts! it was so so good. i am a happy girl right now!

i am very impressed with wales. this small town is gorgeous and so warm and homey. a big plus, the people are actually friendly! dubliner people were not and it made me really frustrated, i tried to be friendly regardless (there mom).

ferry dock in wales.

beaumaris castle.

me and catie.

shorty door.

beachy beach.

ice cream.

of course. (i love this picture, ha!)

yesterday, we trekked to the gaol (jail) and when i say trekked, i mean it. i decided to keep my mouth shut and just follow the person "in charge" of our group. it took way too long. the gaol was so cool! there was a lot of irish history that took place there and the tour guide was very informative. along the way was the modern art museum, cool as well. 

and riverdance! the dancers are so talented. a main guy and main girl were incredible. it was a little corny in some parts and some lip syncing i'm sure throughout their little program. but the dancing was great!

don't forget about the huge rally outside with the irish people chanting "shame on you riverdance". i guess riverdance is performing in israel in september and that's going against ireland's original belief in not siding with israel in the whole thing with palestine. i don't know much but that's what i heard? very funny. 

we were in dublin at the best times, the gay pride week and political uprising!

just one.

i've been thinking about this today, only one more night here in this gross hostel! 
then on to the land of the welsh and a couple nights in some hotels. 
can't wait. 


today was another day of lots of walking. we did take it a little easy though. tomorrow we need to check out of here at 630 am. that's a little too early for me! but we do what we have to do. 


off to riverdance tonight! i will come back to the US a professional clogger! 

me in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

the food.

i forgot to mention that the food here isn't the greatest. i've had a pretty good variety, hamburger, pizza, fish n' chips, seafood chowder, lots of sandy's. but the best thing i've eaten thus far... 

a toasted bagel with peanut butter and bananas! not very authentic, but i had it today and it was amazing. made my day complete! 

pictures of Christ's Church Cathedral below - 

dublina.

today was our first free day in dublin! the weather cooperated very well so i was pleased. i hate being rained on and wet and rainy. it was a little overcast but totally great.


our first stop was the writer's museum but it was a little more expensive than we had expected so we didn't go inside. i heard it was really cool though.


we headed down to henry street, one of the main shopping streets in dublin. and let me tell you, there were so many shops! most, i had never heard of but very cool. we went into this natural made makeup store. they were selling all natural soaps, bath fizz and lip balm. the soaps were amazing. you could tell them how much you wanted and they would cut it and wrap it up. almost like cheese in a deli. most of the shops were fairly cheap and so different than anything we have back home! i purchased a few "souvenirs" to help me remember dublin.


we passed by the bank of ireland that used to be the parliament building so it has no windows, very interesting. christ's church cathedral was beautiful! we went inside for 3 euro and it was worth it. i can't get over how amazing the buildings are - the detail especially. the WAX plus(+) museum was way cool! i had never been to a wax museum and they had all sorts of things, not just wax figures. most of the figures had to do with ireland's history of civil wars and all that. there were some celebrity figures as well. the library/history museum was also really cool. there are so many sites here it's hard to remember!


our group met at 4:45 at the fountain in the park near st. patrick's cathedral. we went inside for evensong and the service and had a thought after for a small fhe. it's so interesting to see the service that was held. so different than what i am used to. but people worship in different ways i guess!
it's kathryn's birthday so we all went to dinner at o'neil's pub. hilary and i split the roasted chicken which was fantastic. most of the food here is good but i am always hungry so it's hard to find food for cheap! i'm glad we purchased groceries!


we all attempted to go "pubbing", that was kathryn's birthday wish, but it was hard with a group of 12 and walking into a pub without attracting stares from those drunk off their guiness (most popular beer in ireland!!).


only 2 more nights in this hostel! none of us are loving it. it's just kind of gross to be honest. the rooms are quite small with 10 girls to a room. one shower room that we all have to share. i have no idea how often it gets clean. i am coping, but it's pretty nasty. i can't wait to leave. the first two nights in wales are set up with hotels and i am looking forward to that!!


a few of us girls have been talking about the fact that we lucked out with our professors. i wish you all could meet them! they both are relaxed and easy going about everything. they definitely trust us and it's fun for us to have freedom to do things without needing to be checked on every second. we all agree that having a buddy is crucial. i mean, think of the movie, taken. i love the thing, but it's pretty scary if you think of it! the girl just gets TAKEN out of her room! her dad is listening on the phone. my worst fear is getting kidnapped, by the way, but i am pretty cautious to say the least.


ireland is amazing. i can't wait to get to wales and most of all, london! we will be staying in flats there and can actually settle down. it will be wonderful. i will be an expert before you know it!


i apologize if these posts are so long to you all... it's just hard to not include everything! they're probably boring too but this is somewhat of my journal as well. i am loving loving loving europe. i hope to come back someday and you all should try and make the journey. it doesn't have to be with me of course, just sometime.


i'll try and post pictures when i can. hopefully wales will have better internet! this one just takes forever. 
cheers.

my momma.

last night when arriving at the hostel, each bunk bed was provided with 2 flat sheets and a pillowcase. each guest that stays here is given that to cover up the mattress and pillow, that way the hostel can save money. this hostel is trying to go green apparently, so the showers and sinks don't stay on, you have to keep pushing and pushing the knob for more water. it's a little obnoxious, but it's understandable i guess. 


anyway, me being me, i made my bed first thing. carefully placed the first sheet over the mattress and tucked it in. 
second sheet went on and i continued to make my bed like i would at home! fold over the top part about 4 inches. tucked in the bottom, then the sides and tried to make corners like the dear shar bear does. it wasn't quite as good, but pretty good i would say. 


soon enough, i was looking around and everyone was watching me! i was just making my bed! but as i looked at everyone else and their beds, the sheets were thrown on, not straight. 
isn't it interesting how every single person is different? different habits. some are more clean some are not. some are considerate. some are not. 


my momma taught me well. she is the queen of being clean and perfect. that being said, i am just like her. thanks shar!! 
it makes my travels a little more tedious but i am okay with it. 

sundee in dublin.

you'd think sunday would be a little less, but it was an adventure in and of itself! 

we had planned to leave to church at 10 am (this would be our last day with peter) and get to the meetinghouse for meetings at 11. not so.

we were all ready to go after eating at the sub par continental breakfast, on the bus, and driving to the church. at this time, it was 10 am, so 3 am at home, i was getting so tired. hilary and i laid down to sleep. jet lag is still a factor. love it. not!

come to find out, the church is locked and we assumed that it is stake conference, that's what we had heard. we sat for a while. peter was trying to google a different church to meet at, his internet was freezing on him.

a car pulled up and a lady walks out towards our bus. she had met with the missionaries two days before and they invited her to church, most likely forgetting that it was stake conference of some sort. her name is Amoke from Nigeria. she said she would go back to her house and get the missionaries contact info and see what's up. twenty minutes later, she came back with a sure fact that it was stake conference. 

we decided to head back to our hostel and figure something else out. brother anderson thought we could hold our own meeting. which we did!

we found the conference room, set up the chairs in an orderly manner. some girls we assigned to speak for 5 minutes and i was to lead the music. brother gardner called his bishop at home (530 am in springville, utah) to ask for permission to have the sacrament. it was granted and we proceeded with the meeting. 

it was an improv meeting as you can tell. but it was wonderful. 

the music came from lds.org and i looked at an ipad for the words. we weren't on key, we were a little too fast, but it was a great experience. 

i could tell we all felt the spirit so strong. 

i hope we can get to some meetinghouses while we are here, i would love to see what church is like in europe!

the more the betta.

yo ho, yo ho, an irish life for me!
we had a wonderful day today. wonderfully beautiful too. it was fantastic. 
an early wake up call again, breakfast at 7:45 and departing the luxurious hotel at 8:30. 
on our bus ride from killarney from dublin we had planned to stop at some castles on the way.
we had an appointment at Blarney Castle and 10 am. 
it was so beautiful! i can't believe that these castles were actually built in the 1400's, if not earlier. they are so elaborate and there were no cranes or anything used like we use today! unbelievable. 
the main attraction at this castle is to kiss the blarney stone. why it is so significant, i couldn't tell you. none of us really know. but we had to do it! the stone is in such an awkward and scary place. some people were a little weezy at its location. 
blarney castle is my favorite castle so far. 

me and hilary in the little cove at the front.

as awkward as this picture is, the stone was on the side of this little open area. it was so weird. 

p.s. i'm sure this creeper of a guy loves his job! he gets to tell people to lay down and literally hold on to their body while they go to kiss the stone. needless to say, it was very awkward.

this castle also had the coolest poisonous garden. it was full of plants that were poisonous and had their names and descriptions.

this green color is all natural. it's amazing! 

next stop was the Rock of Cashel Cathedral. another place from years and years ago. it is going through some renovations to keep up its status so there were some scaffolding things set up. the microclimate inside of it also adds a lot to the erosion inside. it gets wet and stays damp because of all the shade so there was green moss everywhere! outside the cathedral were quite a few ancient tombstones. 

this was my tombstone.

we only had about an hour at the cathedral before another 2 hours to drive to dublin. it's about 4 hours from dingle to dublin but it was nice to split it up!

we are staying in our first hostel, dublin youth hostel. look it up if you'd like. man, were we spoiled in the b&b in killarney. this is interesting and i will have to admit, i'm not the biggest fan. 

there are 10 girls to a room with bunk beds. two rooms for showers with two showers each i think. and some small bathrooms. there are quite a few rooms here on our all girls floor so i don't know how it's going to work in the morning with at least 40+ girls needing to get ready. but we will see wont we?

we are here for 4 nights and have three full days in dublin to do things. all of us are going together to see the riverdance on tuesday night. that will be so awesome! can't get more original than that!

there are museums to see. churches, streets to shop, and more places to visit. it will be a fun few days. we were instructed to stay in at least a set of two girls at all times, and i see why! we walked around still earlier in the evening and it was a little creepy. but that's what you get. (in a hostel area too).

some of the girls in our little little room.

bunks.

dublin youth hostel.

dublin streets have the coolest doors!

yummy thai in central dublin.

miss you all! i'll have fun for you!

check it out!

if you want to see some pictures, check out my previous posts and you can see the pictures i added!


i couldn't add too many because it takes so long, but i have some of them! 

it's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring.

i bet you can assume what i am saying by the title of this post! 
boy did it rain and rain and rain some more today. 


we woke up at 7 am, had a wonderful breakfast at 7 45. the nice irishman came and took our order from the menu that was included in our stay there! there was a traditional irish breakfast, pancakes, or an omelette. i chose a cheese only omelette. it was great. i'm thinking about pancakes tomorrow? irish breakfasts are legit.


after breakfast, our bus departed at 8:30 to head back to dingle, where we were the day before. 
peter is a phenomenal driver and knows a lot of things about ireland. our plan was to take a tour around the dingle peninsula, which ends up being the furthest west part of europe until you get to new york. i thought that was kinda cool! 
we stopped for a potty break and headed on the tour. as weird as this sounds, the toilets here are different than the US ha ha. the seats are just weird! i think we all get used to the daily things we do and use, but when it's something different than what we are used to, we notice it!


a quick stop was quick i tell you. at inch beach. it was raining so much. so cold! me and chrisse went out for about two minutes, took a picture and headed back to the bus.

unflattering pants, i think so.

anyway. peter was telling us about dingle. it is one of the only places that teaches traditional irish in school. they will have all classes in english but one irish class for two hours every day. imagine that? dang. he said that some parents will pay 3,000 euro to send their child to some small town home in the country just to learn irish. they can't take any laptops or phones. and if the speak one word of english, they are sent home! reminds me of asians and their intense studies. (is that even comparable?) 
back to dingle. well there is some political battle. the political officials decided that because dingle is the only place that teaches irish, they wanted to change the signs to say an daingean (pronounced an dang-un). so the government paid to have all of the signs changed to say that and no longer say dingle. well, this dropped the tourism greatly because people who do not speak irish (like myself) couldn't tell where to go to get to dingle. there has been a battle back and forth between the locals wanting the signs to say dingle and the government being stubborn and keeping them to say an daingean. now, the locals have, by themselves, somehow written dingle on the signs. so we have seen tons of signs with both names on them. 
i thought that was interesting! peter has told us a ton of old folk tales and myths. 


we passed some old homes. the last ones that were left from the plague days. the people stayed there and had to fight to find food and work. everything here is so ancient and awesome! i can't get over it. 

the ancient house is the brown brick one. 

p.s. the lady that lives in white house literally sits AT her window, waiting for tourists to come up. when they start to walk through her yard, she yells at them to leave or to pay 2 euro to walk through. smart woman she is.

we passed the beautiful beach and shoreside. it was so pretty. peter asked us if we were feeling energetic because we were about to get in the ocean! i was not in the mood for that. but... i figured i am only in ireland one time. so i probably should do what he says. this beach was Coomeenole Beach. let me tell you, this was THE coldest wind i have ever felt in my life. and probably will ever feel. it was blowing so hard. i couldn't walk straight it was pushing me to the side. had i not tied my scarf, it would have blown away in a second! 

notice the girls behind me standing facing the wind and letting it hold them up? yeah, it was that strong.

peter told us that we need to dip our feet in the ocean. and when we do, we lose some of our soul. but if we come back in ten years, we can get that part of our soul back. i guess i'm going back in ten years! it was so cold, rainy, and more rain. our shoes and socks came off and we ran through the ocean for a little while. attempted to take some pictures, but i don't know how well they turned out! it was an adventure that's for sure. 


we continued on to some smaller stops and took more pictures. we headed back on the loop to dingle. amazing houses are everywhere. they are so beautiful, new, and modern designs. i bet the inside is even better. we also passed a huge mansion in dingle. it was originally built by the lead singer of the cranberries (singing donkey as peter calls her). there were so many huge parties thrown there that the locals got upset at the helicopters and stretch limos coming through their town. she sold the house to a producer who now rents the house out to artists/groups who need to record there. snow patrol has been there for the past two months! 


after arriving back in dingle, we had a couple hours to eat and walk around the shops. i will say, walking around wasn't very pleasant because of the miserable rain! arg. a bunch of us ate at a little restaurant i don't remember the name of, whoops. i ordered seafood chowder and hot cocoa. the hot cocoa was average but the chowder was exceptional! very very good. big V would have loved that! i did find a rain coat walking through the shops. i hope it will keep me warm and semi-dry! 


i wish you all could have seen the rain and the wind at the soul-taking beach! it was insane. 
after arriving back at the hotel, we changed and freshened up to head back out to the grocery store to get some things to share. hilary, kathryn, and i went to tesco to pick some things up. dubliner's cheese and soda bread was our main purchase. it was not my favorite but good to try. 
the chocolate is tasty! i may or may not have picked up a few bars while i've been here. :) i know you're jealous. 
i am drained from the weather today. it was pouring all day and has kind of cleared up. it's nice to be inside and warm. i wish i had some rain boots! my canvas vans and toms aren't cutting it with wet streets. we were told that today was worse than the average day so hopefully most days will be better. 


we've got two castle tour appointments set up for tomorrow and we will head to dublin to stay in a hostel and go to to church there. that will be really cool! 
cheers. thanks. (that's what the irish say here).

i'm not a princess.

just a disclaimer, i have been taking many pictures, but they loader on blogger just won't load them! it's making me very frustrated. 

anyway... after a mediocre sleep at the b&b, we woke up at 7 am. mind you, the jet lag is killing me. i can hardly stay awake on the bus trips. so 7 am here, is midnight at home. you catch my drift? we got ready, re packed our things and had an amazing breakfast at our place. the nice young guy had prepared yummy chocolate croissants, wheat bread, white bread, had cereal and oatmeal ready for consumption, apples, bananas, juice, milk, and hot cereal. i may or may not have had a bowl of all three items. ha ha. don't judge. it was delicious. a great start to a great day. 

we loaded the bus with peter and headed to pick up the rest of the group at the other b&b. the rest of the girls had arrived late that night. they were stuck in chicago because of bad weather. they sat on their plane for 5 hours!! 5! unbelievable. they flew to manchester, then to shannon. long trip for them. 

we all loaded the bus and drove through more of ireland to killarney. we stopped at a mall for some lunch to take with us to the ross castle location. i am on search for a rain jacket. the light rain here is no fun. it's light enough that it pelts you almost like light snow. it's hard to explain.

we arrived at ross castle just in time for the ferry boat that goes through the killarney lakes. there are 3 of them. a low, middle, and high. i'm sure of name specific, but they are there! the tour guide was again, great. he was a little hard to understand but it was a relaxing and informational ride. 

after the 30 minute ride, we arrived back at the dock behind the castle. 10 of us and dr. gardner, his wife and three boys headed in for the first tour. this lady was phenomenal. she knew everything there was to know about this castle! she explained the defense mechanisms in the castle, the lifestyle of the family inside, the construction, the reconstruction after the roof was burned. it was very very cool. no pictures were allowed inside because the items are so old.

on the boat ride.

dr. anderson on the ride. great guy.

after the 35 minute tour, our professors chose to have us ride horse drawn carriages throughout the land around killarney and ross castle. it was a nice ride as well. the horse driver was full of info too. he was a jokester, and probably a drunkard. this ride was just gorgeous. i had no idea that bamboo and rhododendrons are all throughout ireland! i took a ton of pictures but can't load them. the horse's name was maggie, a boy horse. hm. the rain started towards the end of the ride and that wasn't too fun but we are okay. 

deer in the field from the wagon.

we also went nearby to the muckross house (prounounced mucruss). we didn't take the tour but we walked through the miles of gardens and trees. can you imagine the upkeep of that? tons and tons of grass. lots of flowerbeds. i hate weeding, i bet the workers who weed those beds probably hate it too! the house looked like it was straight out of jane austen's books. from the looks of it, there were tons of rooms, chimney's, and extremely luxurious. i wish we could have gone inside. some animal farms were also a short walk around the corner but we didn't have enough time to walk through those. 

muckross house.

muckross gardens.

we all met back at the bus at 4 pm drove a little bit more to our 4 star hotel! it's totally nice. wood floors, great beds, big bathrooms. there are 2 girls to a room and only a few rooms in this whole thing. but it is very nice. we arrived about half past four. we all recouped and headed back out to the streets at 5. tons of walking around. the streets are small and cobblestone like. small shops and restaurants line the sides. and don't forget, the cars drive on the wrong side of the road so it's weird to have to "look right" when crossing. the six of us walked and walked around. checked out some small shops and searched for a food place. we decided on mac's. it was a little pricey, i think, but tasty. i went with the all american bacon cheeseburger and chips. it was delicioso. some other girls got shepherd's pie and another clam chowder. it was great! the meal was followed by some ice cream from murphy's (made all in dingle, where we were last night). 

we will be at this hotel for tonight and tomorrow night. i will say, we have lucked out with these first few nights here! it's so awesome. 

i keep asking myself, am i really here? walking around the streets of ireland? 

once in a lifetime chance i tell you. all of us girls seem to be getting along great (it has only been two days). there are 20 of us. 

i'm not of our plan tomorrow but i hear it's full throughout the whole day. i hope i can get some pictures posted but it's not seeming to let me. darn. 

cheers. have fun in the states :)

anyone notice the new title of my blog? name the movie?

okay, i'll tell you. UP. one of my faves. 

it's not what you think.

the internet was awful last night. i tried to post but it wouldn't go through! b&b's are so sweet. 
but here's an overview of yesteryday - 


we arrived in the airport, took a long time waiting for the other girls and turns out they missed their flight or something. sucks to be them! they were in manchester a few hours ago and should be at the b&b by now, but i really have no idea. 

we waited and waited and finally took off with our irish bus driver, peter, and headed to dingle (yes, that's the real name, don't make fun.) peter is a speedy driver and knows a ton about ireland which is great! we got to the Bunratty Castle after passing some totally gorgeous scenery. it is so green. just like the pictures i've seen. i love it! 

the castle had 6 stories. the cutest old guy was the guide and was yelling in his irish accent. he was great. it took 52 steps to get to the top, through a tightly wound staircase. the guy was telling us the lifestyle of the family that lived in the castle. they would make their way to the top of their quarter, yell down to the person at the bottom to make sure that person was still alive and they blew out their candles. they would double check with the person below to ensure that no one had followed them up the staircase to their quarter to kill them during the night! 

the top of the castle was smaller than i had expected, but just so cool! we could look out and see some tables and chairs below where i'm sure some peeps were getting drunk. 

it's green and i can't get over it! 

view from the top of the castle to the bottom. 

the castle's location was also a little community/town with homes from the past and things like that. the homes were gorgeous. there was also a cathedral of some sort that was also very pretty. the place closed at 4 so we had to get out of there quick. 

we then got back on the bus and stopped at a market for some quick food. i was dying of hunger. i decided i don't eat as much as i should, so that's a good thing! ha! i picked up a pizza for 5 euro. cheese and sauce only baby. and 5 gala apples for 2 euro. great buys!

we took a winding but stunning drive through ireland and on the south side of the peninsula. it was so beautiful! no wonder andrew loves this place. 

there were six of us staying at the Quayside Bed & Breakfast, and one more with Peter, the bus driver. the rest of the group was at another b&b about 10 minutes walk away. 

me, karra, and heidi took a nice, chilly stroll through town, took some scenic pics and headed back. 

notice the an daingean AND dingle?