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?