Today is a gift... that's why they call it the Present.

I mentioned the "Golden Flowers" all over Ireland in my last post... here's what they look like. Just imagine them as far as the eye can see.

So, now, details of the rest of my trip with an extra twist. After Killarney, we headed up towards Cork and Cobh (pronounced Cove). We checked out the Blarney Castle, where I proceeded to knock off one of Discovery Channel's "99 things to do before you die." Evidence lies below. It's actually quite freaky, but I also randomly get a fear of heights. Blarney Castle came with that fear, and my body was shaking... only because there are super steep steps in very tightly packed spaces, which gives me the heebie jeebies. I didn't stop shaking until I was in open air.


After Blarney, which was a lot of fun, we headed up through Waterford to get to Kinsale for the night. Waterford and Kinsale are really gorgeous port cities, and I highly recommend visiting them because they are smaller towns, so they give you a different flavor of Ireland. There were tons of Irish fishermen everywhere. The most important thing of Kinsale, was this poster, however. This one's for you Mindy Holden and Jack Gumtow... haters.

The next day, drove through Wexford, which was interesting, and up through Rossdale on our way to Kilkenny. I think Rossdale is where my cell phone abandoned me. I don't know what happened to it, but it's gone. My precious. Anyway, Kilkenny was gorgeous. There were all kinds of shops and historic sites to visit. Alex and I did a lot of walking and chilling. We saw the Kilkenny castle and ran into our buddies, who aren't really our buddies, from Adare. We did a little shopping (aka I shopped because Alex doesn't buy souvenirs) and went to dinner at a nice pub/restaurant. Ireland's quite expensive... I mean ridiculously so-- in order to get a decent meal, you have to prepare yourself for about an 18-30 euro dinner at least. If you're living on a student's salary, you go for the 18 euro and hope that will suffice. We had a delicious meal and then went to bed pretty early that night because we got up early the next morning to head to DUBLIN.

Kilkenny castle from across the quay ("key"), as the Irish dub canals.

We arrived in the great city of Dublin and stayed at the Shelbourne Marriott, thanks to the Marriott points of Mr. Pauls, and immediately wandered off. We walked down Grafton Street, which is the famous shopping district, and walked through the Temple Bar area on our way to the Dublin Castle and St. Patrick's Cathedral. We called it quits pretty early and went to the pub for dinner with her parents for Irish burgers and shephard's pie. Then, Alex and I walked to Grafton again in search of some sweets and ran into some good times. I included a video. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, you're a) making a mistake, but b) at least watch the last minute or so. Ireland at it's best.

Very famous bar in the Temple Bar strip. This is in all the postcards.

St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Yesterday, the Pauls' family and I woke up pretty late and headed to Trinity College. I felt like I was in the presence of the greats. I mean James Joyce went there and Sir Thomas Moore, so there pal. We also walked through the uni quad where I saw tons of students just hanging out, eating lunch on the grass, and enjoying the weather. This made me miss Chapel Hill a lot because Kels and I always like to eat lunch outside in the quad. :( It was the first time I've really missed UNC since being here, besides the night that we WON the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS. From there, Alex and I walked over to the Guinness Storehouse, which was incredible. We didn't really have the time to go on the full tour, nor did we have the money, but I really wish we could have because that factory is amazing. I'm going to have to go back just for that reason. I may have bought some souvies for my family at the Storehouse, but whether I did or not is pretty up in the air. I met a guy in the store. He kind of made me die a little inside, but maybe that's because his name was Chris Morte. This guy was one of the clerks and he kept following me around and calling me the "Princess from North Carolina." I was feeling pretty good about myself, especially when I finally queued up to purchase some things and he talked to me for 10 or 15 more minutes while at the register. Meanwhile, tons of people were lining up to buy their items. I asked Chris if he'd been in Dublin long, and he said he'd been here only a couple of years and that he's originally from South Africa. I expressed my enthusiasm and asked if he lived near "Yo-han-es-burg." He freaked out and gave me a high five and was like, "Princess from North Carolina, what did you just say?" I was like, "Are you from Yo-han-es-burg?" He told me then that he thought I was both smart and beautiful, and that no one ever pronounces Johannesburg correctly, which I think is a shame. Then, he asked me if I could tell by his surname why he had bad luck and I was like, "of course, your last name means death." Again, he freaked out and gave me a high five, exclaiming that the Princess of North Carolina was the most gorgeous, smart woman he'd ever met. I was really blushing at this point since people in the queue were staring at me. I'm not used to public displays of affection and affirmation to this degree... LB, I can already see your face. Chris then printed out a blank receipt paper and wrote down a list of bands he wanted me to check out on myspace. Then, he pulled out a map of Dublin and started circling places I needed to go. Poor Alex was patiently waiting for me behind the queue line. Chris up and decides to tell Alex not to be mad at me for taking so long because I am the Princess of North Carolina. I felt like a frigging moron. I had to make Chris wrap it up, despite his infectious love, but not before he promised to look me up when he comes to the States since he'll need a place to stay and made me try on his ring. Umm, yeah. You may think this is a joke, but you're very wrong. He also told me that he was 31. I think he was looking for marriage, so he freaked me out. But, here are some cool pics of the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. Irish people only drink Guinness. Nothing else. Irish pride.

This was the Guinness "exit" room where there were really cool sounds of a Guinness tap overflowing. The cloud-like flames you see in the background is really the beauty that is Guinness being pored into your glass.

After that, we went to an Italian place for dinner with Alex's parents, and then hung out in the room for awhile and watched a depressing movie... Snow Angels. The overall mood of the movie was just like Changeling in that you feel every ounce of hope within you seeping out through your pores. That's why I didn't sleep. I gave up at 330 when I had to wake up at 4 anyway for our return to Sheffield.

After a great many days away from Sheffield, I am finally back. Alex and I were really sad to be leaving Ireland, and we both actually wished we could just hop on her parents flight from Dublin to Dulles and go home altogether mainly because our travels have severely worn us out. But, alas, we hopped on our Ryanair flight from Dublin to Leeds, which was rather tumultuous indeed, took a bus to Leeds City Centre, then bought coach tickets from Leeds back to Sheffield. We like to travel the hard way, BUT we save money. By the time we got back to Sheffield Interchange today, we were on the edge of our coach seats anticipating our return home. So, we gave up on catching uni buses back to campus and just hailed a cab. We were anxious. The cabbie dropped Al off first and then me. I literally ran inside Tapton intending to sprint to my room, but noticed the mailbox and remembered that Mindy and LB had sent me things. So, I changed course to check my mailbox. I couldn't find the letter that LB had sent in the "H" box where it belongs, but for some reason this pink envelope in the "B" box caught my eye, and lo and behold, it was addressed to me from Miss Brooks. I love you, dog breath. Then, I put my suitcase on the shaft, ran up 8 zillion flights of stairs, grabbed my suitcase out of the shaft, sprinted to my bedroom door, dropped my bags, and jumped up and down. And then I ran to Tegan's room to give her a hug. It felt really fabulous to be home. It's amazing how much I've missed it. Travelling is loads of fun, but it wipes you the frick out. Plus, I'm really happy to be back to using the GBP because the Euro was ridiculously expensive, even duty and tax free. I'm pretty sure that Tegan and I are the only people in all of Tapton since Easter break doesn't end until the 26th. I informed her about how my mom had sent me a package and I had no idea where it was since it wasn't in my mail, and Tegan made me run downstairs to demand where it had gone. I went down there, and lo and behold, there were TWO PACKAGES for me!!! Mindy, my precious flower of a mother sent me a 100 calorie pack of chocolate candy, mascara, the movie TWILIGHT (which my friends are freaking out about by the way, momma, so nice work), a card from her, and a card from Alyssa. Alyssa's letter is hanging on my wall now because it was the cutest thing ever. Then, the man behind the counter extracted a totally unexpected package from Indian Trail, NC, aka Bethany Ann. Thanks for my shirt, Bee!! Me gusta mas y te amo mucho. Naturally, I was feeling quite affirmed... Two of my best friends sending me things, my mom sending me things, Alyssa writing me a letter, and of course, a letter from the ever faithful, Jennifer, was also waiting in my mailox. It was a beautiful day.

Once I got settled, I frantically tried reaching my other half. She finally skyped me and I explained to her about my situation. Linds agreed to meet me at Somerfield, which is closing by the way. WHAT?! How did that happen? I've been gone 2 weeks and my local grocery store is closing down on me. Now I have to walk up 9 hills and 4 miles to bring bottled water back to my dorm. So much for convenience. Anyway, I was late to meet Linds because of my package excitement. We walked to city centre to solve my problem. We did. I now have a new phone... same number, new phone. It's pretty crappy because I'm only here for another 7 1/2 weeks, but it has sudoku, so I'm stoked. It's a fun game to play when people are boring you and you need a challenge. I was supposed to go over to S and Genna's house, but since I've been up since Monday at 930 a.m. and it's now 915 p.m. on Tuesday, I'm thinking I might just call it a night and hit the sack. The peace and quiet has become extremely inviting.

After my 18-day long journey, this is what I have learned:

1) "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need."
2) Euro men are hot because they wear RayBan aviators and they aren't afraid to tell you how they really feel. For instance, I once asked an Italian man if there was a gym at his hotel. His response was, "No, only a personal trainer."
3) Travelling is heaps of fun, but it wears you down and reminds you of what's important. Aka, you can't wait to get home towards the end of your journey.
4) How to translate 3 different foreign currencies into U.S. dollars.
5) Money isn't everything because worrying about having too little of it inhibits you from enjoying yourself fully, while having it makes you wish for more. Some how the Irish survived the Potato famine, and are surviving a worse recession than the U.S.- so can we.
6) A little adversity only builds character.
7) Learning how to conquer language barriers is really fulfilling.
8) Bartering is also fulfilling.
9) Europe is freaking amazing and I can't wait to get back.
10) I wish the U.S. had environmental standards better than the EU.
11) "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why they call it the present."
12) I'm moving to Montana to live off the fat of the land and open a ranch.

Also, in other news, I officially booked my housing at GW for the summer. Now I just have to find a way to fund it. :)