Ireland!

Hello you lovely readers of mine! I am more tired than I have been in a while, and it's all thanks to a little friend I like to call jet lag. Right now, it would be around 1:30 a.m. in Ireland, which I have gotten used to after a week of being there. I just wanted to take this moment while my laundry finishes drying to tell you all a little information from my trip that you didn't get to see from the photos I uploaded to Facebook!

For anyone thinking about traveling, I very much recommend visiting Ireland. We flew out of Chicago around 4:30 on March 12, and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, at 7:30 a.m. their time, which would be around 1:30 a.m. here in Iowa. We had a few hours to kill before our next flight left around 11:30, which was straight to Dublin. When we arrived in Dublin, we went through customs and got onto a charter bus, which was driven by a man named Pat and accompanied by a tour guide named Brian, both of which were with us our entire stay. Pat was more on the quiet side, but Brian was very lovely and full of historical information about the country. We went directly from the airport all through the countryside, which took around two and a half hours. On our way to the Cliffs of Moher, we went through a little village that was the home of President Barack Obama's eighth cousin. The village, which is almost completely empty, has a truck plaza named Barack Obama Plaza, where we stopped to use the restroom and exchange our money into Euros. While we were there, an Irish gentleman who was not sober by the name of Darnish (or something similar) came onto our tour bus, told some girls they were pretty, etc etc., took a UNI flag someone had brought with them and got off the bus. Our tour guide, Brian, got off the bus, told the man to give the flag back, and he was hesitant but finally gave it back after giving Brian a hug. When we got to the Cliffs of Moher, it was so breathtaking. The sea was a very dark blue color and the greenery and sky was just perfect. It was a little windy and cold, but nothing we couldn't handle knowing the everyday conditions of campus here at UNI. When we finished with the Cliffs, we had supper at a random hotel and had a few more hours on the bus before arriving at our hotel in Killarney.

Hanging out at the Cliffs of Moher. I give it a thumbs up.

On Monday, March 14,  we took a tour by bus around the Ring of Kerry, which is basically a highway that goes through the Kerry Mountains. We saw a lot of sheep, lakes, and amazing views. We also went through a very old stone tunnel while driving back to Killarney. When we got to town, we did some shopping before we went off to eat dinner at the hotel. When we finished with that, we had a concert at St. Mary's Church in Killarney. We shared our concert with a high school group from Florida, and their director was actually a friend of our director. The concert went well, and we returned to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Jessica and I at a stop on the Ring of Kerry.

On Tuesday, March 15, we visited the Blarney Castle. It was very cold, and we waited in line for approximately an hour. We were stuck behind some of the kids from that high school group we sang with, and one of them kept making stupid comments about everything. For example, "That light is original to the castle. It's like 17,000 years old". The view from the top of the castle was awesome, and even though I could've, I did not partake in kissing the Blarney Stone, just because 1) Ginger Kruse told me people pee on it, and 2) I've had a lung infection for a week, which was just diagnosed today.

Jessica kissing the Blarney Stone.

After viewing the castle, we ventured to Waterford, where we toured the Waterford Glass visitors center and got to see how the famous crystal is made. We saw where they mold it, where they etch it, polish it, and everything in between. When we finished the tour, we went to the Waterford Crystal store and I purchased a vase for my mother, since she so graciously asked for one before I left (or should I say, ordered me to bring her one). LOL. When we finished shopping there, we had a walking tour of the city where we saw old churches, got stories about the vikings, and I took a selfie with a pigeon. We returned to the hotel for dinner and sleep later that night. A bunch of us also went out to pubs that evening, and this is when I found out I didn't like Guinness. When we finished at the pubs, I was eager to get some pizza and so was Regina. We found a pizza shop that was open until 4:00 a.m. and I ordered some cheese pizza and garlic bread. In a series of unfortunate events, someone took my pizza by mistake, and so the cooks had to make a completely new one. But it was worth it. The pizza was gooey and good, and of course the garlic bread was on point. Garlic bread always is.

On Wednesday, March 16, we had a tour of Kilkenny Castle, which had very ornate victorian era architecture. Although almost all of the pieces in the original castle were auctioned off in the 1950s, there were still a few family heirlooms that stuck around. I'm sure my mother would've enjoyed it very much. We had the afternoon after the tour at leisure to shop and eat, and so we went to a restaurant called Left Bank. This building used to be an actual bank before the recession in Ireland took place, and so it was closed down during the recession and made into a restaurant. I, personally, did not find anything on the menu to be appetizing, so I just ordered a scone. And it was a damn good scone. We had a concert later that night at Christ Church Cathedral in Waterford, which was about an hour drive from Kilkenny.

On Thursday, March 17, we traveled to Glendalough and toured the monastic sites established in the 6th century. There were many structures still standing, and one of the things I loved seeing the most was the cemetery on the land. When we were finished visiting there, we traveled to Bray and took part in the Bray St. Patrick's Day parade. There were children spraying silly string the entire parade, so you can imagine how much lime green string I picked off of my jacket as we walked on the parade route. When we finished, we took a group photo by the ocean and then sang a set of songs on the stairs of a restaurant called Barracuda. We ventured to our hotel in Dublin later that night and went out for drinks at a local pub to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I ordered a Strawberry Daiquiri, as I had been all week since the Guinness incident, and it had to have been 90% artificial flavoring. It was very tart and disgusting, but I managed to get through it. I got so tired while we were there that I was doing a word find on my phone to keep me awake. I am definitely the life of the party.

University of Northern Iowa Women's Chorus on the Beach in Bray, Ireland.

On Friday, March 18, we had a morning tour of Dublin where we visited Trinity College and got to see the Book of Kells, as well as this awesome library they had on campus. At 12:30 p.m., we had our final concert in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. The acoustics were great and the cathedral was just beautiful. After that, we had an hour or so to ourselves around town before we met up at 3:20 to tour Dublin Castle. While we were out and about, I kind of veered away from the group without telling anyone where I was going and got a tattoo of a fox on my wrist. I was late getting to the castle, and everyone was freaking out about it (especially Niccole Giberson) but I made it there before our choir director did, so everything was good! This castle was also beautiful and we got to see a river that flows completely underground as we toured it. That night we went to a restaurant called Merry Ploughboys pub, where we enjoyed dinner and an awesome show by the featured band, the Merry Ploughboys. They are awesome, by the way! In between their set, there were some Irish dancers on stage, and they were also awesome! Man, this trip was amazing.

Library at Trinity College, Dublin.

My fox tattoo!

Saturday, March 19th we woke up and got on a plane to Munich, Germany, around 11:30 a.m. I slept most of that flight. When we arrived in Munich, we had about twenty minutes to spare before our plane to Chicago started boarding. We were all freaking out, because we still had to get our entire group of 45ish people through security. However, some strings were pulled and all our passports were stamped so that we would not have to go through security. Apparently I almost didn't pass as the same person on my passport, though, because the guy checking it had to do a double take before he let me through. I swear I just cut my hair!

We arrived home to Cedar Falls at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning. I woke up around 11:30, and worked a six hour shift from two to eight at Menards. I'm not sure how I stayed awake, but I made it. Although I enjoyed Ireland very much, despite being ill, I am happy to be home, where I don't have to constantly eat chicken and ham, and I can get my Culver's fix. I'm also happy because I can call my Mom to bother her whenever I want, as well as see Dalton.

P.S. Mom, I didn't break your vase while traveling home. You're so lucky.

If anyone wants to hear about the trip, I will gladly reiterate this blog post to you in person! It was an amazing experience to be able to share with the University of Northern Iowa Women's Chorus. I've made so many new friends this week, and gotten closer to those I already had.

Have a lovely night!