Ireland!

Ireland was amazing! We left on Wednesday afternoon and took a coach bus out to stansted airport. That is a long bus ride, 3 and 1/2 hours, and once you get there you feel like all of your traveling should already be over. Upon arriving in Cork Ireland, we needed to take a bus to get to our hostel. We managed to miss THREE buses in a row by being inside or outside at the wrong time. We finally ended up taking a van taxi to our hostel. It was kind of weird because its been a long time since we have been in a car.
We woke up the next morning and decided to go explore Cork and walk around.
Apparently it was Daffodil Day in Cork. However the next day in Killarney it was Daffodil Day too, so we were kinda confused and thought it was funny.
After walking around Cork for awhile, we just were itching to go see the countryside or scenery of Ireland opposed to the city, which Cork had to offer. So we took a train out to Cobh, a harbor city about 20 minutes away. This was the last place that Titanic stopped before it wrecked. I thought that was really neat.

I wanted to reenact Titanic and Molly helped me out.

After Cobh. We got on the train again and stopped off at Foto which has a famous wildlife park. When we got there we decided we did not want to pay 13 Euros to get into the park. There was a trail/road that led down alongside the park, so we decided to take it. It was strange because there was electric fences all along a deserted grassy path and we felt like we were in Jurassic Park and that dinosaurs would pop out any moment. Everyone started telling spooky stories and I must admit I got a little, teeny, tiny creeped out. We also came to a Garden that was SOO green, and really pretty! We figured out that Ireland is probably so green because it rains and sprinkles ALOT.

The next morning we headed out to Killarney, by taking a 2 hour coach ride. I was planning on sleeping, but I could not shut my eyes for fear of missing the scenery. It was BEAUTIFUL! The picture below is what I took out of my window on the way there.

When we got to Killarney and we found the tourist office and the lady told us how to get to the Ireland National Park. We walked about 10 miles this day and we were VERY tired by the end of it, but we got to see the Ireland that we were all thinking of.

Yes, we hiked to a waterfall!






The next day we went to Blarney to see the castle. It was really cool.

While we were there, we HAD to kiss the famous Blarney stone. They have you lie on your back and you hold onto bars while guy helps you flip over and kiss the rock. Thousands of people have kissed this rock including Winston Churchill and American Presidents.

This was me on my way up from kissing the stone.






We then walked around the premises of the castles and the gardens for awhile and took a lot of pictures with my camera using the color feature on it.

Here's our group! Karissa, Sondra, Jill, Molly and I

All in All, Ireland was a great experience. It really is as green and beautiful as everyone says it is.

I am so enjoying my time over here. I have quite adjusted and I am actually feeling sad at thinking of my departure. I know that when I come back to the states that little things will be different. Instead of saying, "Wow, look how long that line is." In my mind I say, "Wow, the queue is really long."I really have been able to realize how important it is to have knowledge and understanding of other cultures. I feel that we Americans tend to have an egotistical attitude sometimes, that we sometimes forget there's a whole big world out there. I have caught the traveling bug and I hope that throughout my lifetime I am able to travel more and experience as many cultures as I can.

Until I depart back to the states, I will soak up every moment of this AMAZING opportunity.

AND.....my parents come in one week!!!!!