27 October 2012

Halloween Success!

Oh SNAPS, not only was our Halloween party a success, it was kickass!

We had orange and green marble cupcakes with ghosts and amazingly delicious Pillsbury cancer-icing,

spider truffles whose legs kept breaking off, so they were more like amputee spider truffles in physical therapy,

and HOLY SHIT MUMMY PIGS IN A BLANKET.

Michigan Friend and I taught the Germans, the Estonian, and the Indian how to carve pumpkins, because all of their respective countries are lacking in this most entertaining tradition.  The pumpkins came out fabulous, and we wound up putting them all on my front steps--with the notable exception of Roommate's boyfriend's Osama bin Laden pumpkin, mostly because the building across from us contains several Pakistani refugee families and that seemed like poor judgement.  


Yes, that is a bicycle face.

Today, it's roast pumpkin seeds, wash clothes, and try to get as much reading done as possible for Monday. Hooray!

23 October 2012

Here we go again!

The new semester is here!  Despite the fact that I wince every time I look at my schedule because I've got a crapton of work to do, I'm really pumped.  This semester is going to be fabulous.  I've got fun, interesting classes, I'm starting my awesomely kickass job on Thursday, and I'm applying for all sorts of fun internships in all sorts of fun places--Namibia, Switzerland, England...it's going to be brilliant!

Other things that are fun:

--Jean was out at the beginning of the month to visit, and it was amazing seeing her again and getting to run around, do ridiculous things, and explore eight million different castles.

--Indian food party--delicious and highly entertaining.

--Chilling on a friend's roof talking about politics, which eventually devolved into writing insane notes.  I was particularly proud of the one that said:

PROPERTY OF FELIX BAUMGARTNER

To Do List:

Drink red bull
Grow wings
Jump from space, motherfucker.

This note-writing further devolved into turning said notes into paper airplanes and unleashing them on the passerby below.  Only two guys actually picked up any of our planes, and then only because we were harassing them from the rooftop.

--Enjoying the random week of sunshine by sitting outside with cookies and reading Good Omens.


This week is really easy because most of my classes don't start until next week.  Seeing as I have so much time on my hands, I've decided to plan and execute a HALLOWEEN PARTY, which I am fiendishly excited about.  Personal opinion, Halloween is the best random holiday of the year and the Germans don't know what they're missing.  I've got a crazy long shopping list, I invented the ghetto version of apple cider, I had Jean bring me pumpkin carving kits, just so we could do this properly.  I'm even making my mom's pigs in a blanket, a requirement for any party worth it's salt--but I'm going to wrap the sausages to look like mummies instead.  So pumped.

That's about all I've got for now!  Got to get started on my first reading of the semester.

Adios!

19 October 2012

Ireland Part the Last: What We Learned

At 4 AM in Dublin airport, Claire and I made a list of the things we'd learned.  They were:

--Never trust an Irish bike seller if they're female.

--Wed really won't die if left alone in the middle of nowhere, we will find somewhere to stay, contrary to popular belief.

--No one can drink like the Irish.

--No one wants to drink like the Irish.

--If you can't pay your loan, it's the bank's fault for giving you one.

--If you don't want to pay your overdraft fees, it's okay--they shouldn't have let you take the money out in the first place.

--Sean Quinn is a douchebag.

--Guinness tastes like sludge no matter where in the world you drink it.

--Claire looks Irish.

--Daniel is the smooth 18 year old we've ever met.

--Letting seagulls pass you is NOT GOOD.
(This is from Claire's interpretation of a sign at Moher to say "Do Not Let The Seagulls Pass You.")

--Also, stepping on the grass and destroying their habitat is equally frowned upon.

--Strap your stuff down to avoid getting it stuck in your bike.

--But if you do, Barry is the nicest guy and will help you.

--Theft makes everything taste better.

--Except After-Eight hot chocolate.

--Tralee or Tra Li so as not to confuse anyone is not nearly as cool as the guidebook describes.

--Cork is totally not worth it either.

--Cheetos big bag tastes like regular Cheetos without all the chemicals.  Also, it does not dye your hands/pants orange.

--Clean clothes really do make you feel like a human.

--We can officially sleep ANYWHERE.

--When in doubt/when everyone around you regales you with scary stories about Limerick...skip it.

--Dublin is way cooler the second time around.  Best 2 euros were spent on the gaol.  Pronounced gay-ol.

--When old ladies offer to let you follow them to your destination...don't do it.

--Tina and I will never actually be friends.  Amy is just that popular it's like I'm overflow.

--We totally look homeless right now.

--Scones are awesome.


And that officially wraps up the Ireland recap week (or two).  Yay!

15 October 2012

Ireland Part VI: The Diaries

Excerpts from The Ireland Diaries
Sept 3-Oct 2, 2012

Sept 5!

It's midnight and Claire and I are writing in the hallway because we didn't want to wake up the Italian who's sharing our hostel room, he's nice and has hipster glasses.

We bought bikes!  Mine is bright purple--also, the helmet is purple.  This was unintentional.

Other fun things: Irish people are really, really nice.  We snuck onto tours at Trinity College and we walked a LOT.  Surprisingly, my fat deposit is a-okay with this.

Off to Greystones tomorrow!  18 miles and my bike seat is a piece of plastic.

Yay!

P.S.  leprechaun museum.

Tina

P.P.S  Why did I put a P.S before my signature?


Sept. 6

OK so

A#1.  Everything in me wants to die
B#2.  I love Almonds

So the day started well--tea scones some fear in the guy at the hostels eyes over hearing of our intended plan as he fixed the bike bags to Tina's bike.  Little did he know that at that point we still had nowhere to stay. Well then we went to get Tina a new seat and me a new basket and that took some time, so we had coffee and took advantage of the cafe's free wifi and found our couchsurf.  Then after getting a little lost, we finally made it to the coast. And went on forever!!!!! LOTS of HILLS like really high ones and it was not fun I felt like death.  Eventually we made it here alive but that was after we asked some lady for directions to make sure we were going the right way and she offered to drive in front of us because she didn't want us to get hurt and we had come a long way and she wouldn't want to tell us to do something that she wouldn't tell her daughters to do.  But the thing was that she kinda took us the long way and I nearly died.  So I got lost for a little while but then I was found some time later.  Then we went too far down 1 road, that was an issue, so we had to go back a little and resmell the food in the pub.  A cruel joke.  Then we found our way here---Finally, this house is huge and gorgeous.  And she gave us a sandwich best thing I ever ate-  Now I'm done.

Claire


Sept 8

So, Monarch of the glen!
just a few thoughts

SO last night we stayed with Clement and Brian, 2 very nice lads, in fact, I would say they were grand.  Well to be factual we stayed w/ Clement. Brian is his neighbor on this massive estate that used to belong to Clement's father.  Well they took us out for a night on the town.  Well by town it had 4 shops and a gas station.  The Mormons we stayed with the other night were nice but the kicked us out so that was kinda lame.  Well for some reason they thought we were only staying 1 night.  Well had that not happened we would have never met our new besties.  Today's ride was long through the valley, mostly there were quite a few good hills that were totally made worth it when you see the views coming down the hills. Gorgeous, or Grand as one might say.  They also may ask "from where do you hail?" or use the word tink and not in reference to tinkerbell because, as we learned on Tuesday at the leprechaun museum, Tinkerbell is not an Irish kind of fairy.  But then again they threw crying babies down wells to make them stop so you know they come back as a "good" baby by the time they get back from the wells.

Claire


Sept 15

Oh haaay,

So the last couple days have been pretty fun.  In Dungarvan we got chased out of the BnB by an angry Irish lady who turned our hot water off because she had to go to a funeral for some guy that did ecstasy.  Also, there was a giant hill on the way out that made we want to cut off my arms and feed them to a cow.

Okay, Cork!  Our couchsurfing hosts were really weird but the Poles staying with them were amazing and hilarious and we just hung out with them.  Cork itself was pretty lame, not a whole lot to do, but Cashel was AMAZING!  Our tour guide was ginger and starred at us because we were wearing hot red and pink and clearly had not started with the tour.  But we learned lots of fun things and then went and played on the abbey ruins across the street, which was even more fun than Cashel. 

Then in Cork we tried to go on a free boat ride, but no one knew what we were talking about and there were no signs.  So we gave up.  Also, no live music on a Saturday night!  Weird.

On the way to Macroom, I wanted to punch this town in the face because the first sign said it was 6 1/2 km away, the second 7 km, and the third 8.  Very disappointing. Macroom itself is cute, there appears to be a shopping center built into a castle.  Oh! And on the way we went to Blarney, which was cool.

Off to Killarney today!  Taking a bus, because the road goes up a mountain.

Tina


Sept 20

Betch don't read this shit.

So we are in tralee which in Irish is spelled tra li which is kinda cool.  And that's probs the coolest thing about this place.  Killarney was cool.  The park was really pretty and the ring was fun.  We got to climb things.  The this guy from Marlton befriended us...he was running from something, he's too old to be traveling that aimlessly.  The ride here was easy I wish every day was like that.  And there were LOTS of Germans in Killarney, like we were practically in Germany.  And the accents here are weird they are not so much fun.  And it's pronounced row like cow.

Claire


Sept 22

Oh snaps bitches we biked like crazy people on cocaine and somehow managed to beast it to Tarbert before 12.30, and we hadn't planned on making it there until tomorrow.  Took a ferry to Killimer so we could skip Limerick, and just decided to see how far we could get.  That turned out to be Kilkee, putting us a day ahead of schedule.

Claire's bike broke, so some nice guys helped us and a hysterical lady freaked out every time we got too close to the road.  Victoria Beckham has spina bifida.

Tina

Sooo here it goes.

Victoria Beckham really has skeletal issues, I mean, do you see how she stands?  Now I'm not a dr. but ya know it could be spina bifida or I don't know skuliosis or astiolparosis (Claire, it's osteoporosis) but she really needs to get it checked out.  Because she has 4 kids to worry about.

Also we watched Dakota Fanning in the world's saddest movie.  Like seriously, there is nothing in the whole world sadder than watching some girl die so although it was quite good I would not recommend it.

And then!!!
We went to Dingle and looked for dolphins but didn't see any.

And then!!!
Because we are amazing we biked 67 km today making 1. it the longest bike ride so far and 2. a whole day ahead of where we intended to be!! Peace Bitch!

Claire


Sept 24

Dearest Vampire Diaries

Being as that is the temp name.

So STILL no dragons also there have not been any druids.  This has come to be a huge disappointment :( .  I mean, really who do thy think they are kidding, hiding them away, is it because they use magic?  Well that being said, yesterday we did the cliffs, they were gorge but no puffins so that's a bit of a disappointment.  Also we got eaten alive by bugs.  Then we went to the B&B and spilled musli ALL over the floor.  oops.  And there were a lot of hills. But loved the cliffs, then we were going to the aran islands.  And the guy took us on the cliff boat ride out of pity.  He said it was the best way to see the cliffs.  He was right coolest most beautiful sight ever but still NO PUFFINS.  Then we were really wet so we ate soup and wore sweaters that had been left at the bar.    

Then we cycled all over the island, saw people speaking irish, ignored a no trespassing sign and did not die.  On the way back it rained AGAIN then the boat guy who was Polish (love dem poles) took us to the grocery store.  Then we went to watch the flute guy at the bar and met Daniel (smoothest 18 yr old we know) and now we are stalking him.

Claire

We are stalking him because we want to know if his dad's office to make us breakfast stands.

Other things we did: made friends with a Swiss guy (who claims there are no druids or dragons).  Had the same conversation about our trip 8 times today.  Got kissed on the cheek and welcomes to Ireland.  Decided Poland is awesome.  Dried our clothes in front of a fire.  Burnt the cookies.  Danced in the kitchen.  Didn't see druids.  Attracted other New Jerseyans with my Rutgers jacket.  Biked in the rain. Saw nobody on Inisheer for like an hour and a half.  That's all I can think of right this second.
We are also recognized quite often as "the girls with the bikes"
"Who were freezing when they got off the boat."

Tina


October 1

So we're sitting in Dublin airport eating cheetohs.  Here are some things we've done since Doolin.

--cheated and took a bus to Galway.  Made the driver let us out 11 km away so we could bike.
--ran around Galway and did a free walking tour.
--made friends with Simon, the Awesome German and Fierce Canadian Lesbian
--Arthur Guiness day, and hated it
--made it back to Dublin
--YAY!

Tina

But we did go to the big island and Connemara.  And that was so pretty and so nice.  We were there for Arthur Guinness night that was really cool and unexpected.  It's a great holiday dating all the way back to 2009 and the 500th anniversary of the gross sledge they pull off boats.  I tried it because everyone said OMG it's so good here it's like nothing you have ever tried.  Well what is true is the are wrong!!  


a little while later...

We are in the airport at 3 AM and we want to die this is so sad.  And the cheetos don't even taste right!

3.48.  Have tea.  No cheetos, they are gone.  Not as miserable but let's be honest it's almost 4 and we're awake.

4.  Tinas checking her mail.  Tea is almost gone.  I will be really sad in a moment until then we continue the list.

4.20.  The time not the date.  Tina is brushing her teeth.  I just forgot how to spell teeth, I mean it might as well be the date when I can't remember that.  tea is gone.  It was good.  Trips almost done, so sad.  Will miss the scones, not the Guinness.


And those are the highlights of our Ireland diaries!

13 October 2012

Ireland Part V: Ireland By Numbers

Okay, so I may not be the greatest at posting every day as promised.  Whatevs.  Part the fifth, also known as Ireland By Numbers!

452   -- Kilometers we biked
280.86   -- Miles we biked
3   -- Dogs we were chased by
1   -- Cows we were chased by
7   --Weird men who tried to pick me up
1   -- Weird men who tried to pick up Claire
2   -- Inadequate hostels (Tralee and Dublin)
1   -- Rat in our Dublin hostel
4   -- Pounds that I lost
2   -- Times we were groped by strangers
2   -- Times we ordered something in a bar and everyone stared at us
5   -- Times someone saw the R on my jacket and asked if I went to Rutgers
8 million   --Sheep in Ireland (or, one for every person who lives in New York)
120   --Euros the guy at the bike store in Galway offered to give us for both bikes
250   --Euros we sold our bikes for in Dublin
1   --Times we caught someone trying to steal one of our bikes
 50   --Germans we caught off-guard by speaking German  at them
4   --Times we cheated
Lots and Lots   --amount of fun we had

08 October 2012

Ireland Part IV: Our Favorite Moments

Of the entire month, here are our favorite moments from Ireland:

--hanging out with Clement and Brian
--Eating a Irish breakfast cooked by Sheila and Pat.  It was the first time we'd felt really full since we'd arrived.
--Daniel.
--exploring Inishsheer by bike.
--Claire getting snotted on by the giant cow at Hore Abbey.
--Trying to bake in Doolin hostel, and just having a dance-off instead.  And making hot chocolate and eating the entire bag of marshmallows.
--having off-season B and Bs all to ourselves.
--stealing cereal.
--seeing the Cliffs from Doney's boat.

--watching Ghosthunters in Macroom (with stolen cereal).
--making Claire kiss the Blarney stone.

--all of Dingle.
--hunting (unsuccessfully) for dragons and druids.
--Elephant and Castle--the ridiculously delicious restaurant in Dublin Claire's parents sent us to.
--Cookie fails in Doolin.
--confusing the eight million Germans we met everyone by unleashing their own language upon them.
--Geraldine's pink and sparkly room.
--Barry the Nice Cyclists stopping to help us pull Claire's backpack out, and then sending us a nice text message in response to our "We made it to Galway alive" text.
--eating dinner as a real meal the last night in Dublin.
--1 euro giant mint aero bars.

Least Favorite Moments

--crossing the 4 lane highway into Cork, which was terrifying.
--The very first hill we ever pushed our bike up, on the coastal road into Greystones.
--seeing the rat at the crappy hostel in Dublin, and then making the decision not to tell Claire about it until the next morning.
--biking into Galway in the rain.


--Christian and girlfriend's super awkward hug in the kitchen while we tried not to look.
--our first host in Greystones kicking us out.
--Cork.  All of Cork.
--getting kicked out of the B and B in Dungarvan.
--sitting on a boat to Inishsheer trying not to freeze to death/die of seasickness.  Everything got better once we landed and ate soup.
--Arthurt Guinness day.  Made-up holiday, also, no fun.
--Holding up the bus on our Ring of Kerry tour.

--Being stalked.
--Being told it "used to be cool" to be American.
--People saying we would never make it to Galway/getting mad at us for trying.
--The worst piece of cake in the world, apple with rainbow sprinkles.
--The guy behind the counter and the crappy hostel in Dublin yelling at the guy who spoke no English about who wasn't paying for the room.

Hooray!

06 October 2012

Ireland Part III: The People We Met

I'm a firm believer in "It's not the things you do, it's the people you meet," mostly because I find the people I meet tend to make my best stories.  Then again, I also have an amazing ability to attract the weidest people on the planet.

In the course of our trip, Claire and I met a metric crapton of entertaining people, which I have divided up below into our favorite, least-favorite, and weirdest.  Let's go from negative to positive.

Super Not-Cool People

Kilkenny Crafts Guy:  As is evident from the name, this guy worked in the craft store in Kilkenny that we quickly ducked into to buy postcards.  He was super condescending about our trip, and got legitimately angry with us for what he perceived as our flippant attitude towards the danger were were apparently putting ourselves in by undertaking a cross-country cycling trip with zero cycling experience.  We did not like him.

Lying Bike Bitches:  These ladies, the owners of a bike shop in Dublin, sold Claire what was, according to the bike store in Greystones, the completely wrong bike for what we were doing.  In short, they took advantage of the fact that we didn't know what we were doing.  Also, the bike was broken.  We made it as far as Greystones before Claire had to trade it in and spend more money on the sleek sexy roadbike that would eventually get her to Galway.

Condescending Belgian:  So named because he was condescending and Belgian.  We mostly disliked him because he walked around in his underwear while telling us how we were wasting our time by going to Dingle--which turned out to be one of our favorite places.  Moral of the story is, don't listen to naked Belgians.

The Israelis:  When we first met the Israelis, we liked them.  The second time, we were less sure.  By the third meet-up, we actively disliked how superbly condescending they were to women, and how they only liked us as long as they thought they could sleep with us.  And they got mad at us when they walked into the room and caught us hanging out with Simon, The Cool German.  

Crazy Rose:  So as to not repeat my last blog post, Rose was the psychotic Irishwoman who turned our hot water off at the B and B in Dungarvan, tried to make us shower in the sink, and then chased us out.  Did not like.

Stephen and Christian:  We stayed with these guys in Cork, and while they didn't outright dislike them, we disliked how the clearly didn't want us there.  Also, one of their friends went into our room and left the door open, and Christian's cat got out.  He blamed us for it, which we didn't like much either.

Post Office Douche:  For whatever reason, when we bought international stamps from the post office in Dublin they were giant and rectangular and not very stamp-like.  When we asked the guy for smaller ones because we had already written the postcards, he told us that was our "fatal flaw" and to go suck it.  Not a fan of that dude.

Matt from Marlton:  We met Matt from Marlton on our Ring of Kerry bus tour, where despite the age difference, he instantly fell in love with Claire.  And asked her out.  And she turned him down by saying she couldn't go out for drinks with him because I wouldn't be in the country.  Amazing?  Yes.


Super Favorite People!

Clement and Brian!:  We met them on our way out of Dublin and loved them so much, we spent the rest of the trip sending them postcards.

Daniel!:  Our favorite Englishman, who we met in Doolin where he was vacationing with his family.  We love him and miss him.

Steven!:  Sold us tea and scones every morning we were in Dublin.  Looks like a leprechaun.  So amazing.

Simon, The Cool German!:  I don't know why we loved him so much, but he was adorable and funny and made jokes about Germany.  Win.  Plus one for Galway friends.

Fierce Canadian Lesbian!:  As the name implies, she was fierce.  And Canadian.  And a lesbian.  We love ALL of those things, and had a brilliant time sitting in our hostel room with her and Simon and talking about everything.

Doney!:  I don't know if that's how you spell his name, but he was the owner of the boat company in Doolin we went to the Aran Islands with.  Also, he gave us a free boat ride to the Cliffs of Moher because we were wet and cold and exhausted and he clearly felt sorry for us.  He was right, the best way to see the cliffs is from the water.

Doolin Pole!:  We never caught his name, but he worked for Doney.  After arriving back in Doolin, we asked him for directions to the nearest supermarket.  We ran into him again on our way back to the hostel, and he offered to pick us up later and take us food shopping because it was raining buckets.  Also, he was awesome.

Birdwatching Poles!:  The Birdwatching Poles (Hubert and Anthony) were also couchsurfing at the same place as us in Cork, and they were our favorite thing about the city.  They were hilarious and thought Claire's impression of speaking French was really funny.  And they were great sports about how we never stopped making fun of them for watching birds.

David!:  Was our host in Kilkenny, and is just an all-around fabulous and funny guy.

Geraldine!:  She of the hot-pink B and B room.  Amazeballs.

Phyllis!:  Also owned a B and B, and was incapable of wearing blouses that weren't see-through.  Her dog's name was Jack, and when she was angry with him, she put him in the shed.

Sheila and Pat!:  The husband-and-wife team at the first B and B we stayed in of our trip, in Aughrim.  Sheila and Pat were adorable and hilarious and gave us giant hugs when we left.  Also fun was that we had the entire place to ourselves.

Barry the Nice Cyclist!:  On our second day of biking, Claire managed to get one of her backpack straps seriously wound up in her gears, to the point where her bike couldn't move.  It was so stuck in there, we couldn't pull it out.  Barry the Nice Cyclist was the nice cyclist who pulled over to have a nice chat with us while beating Claire's backpack into submission.

Swiss Guy!:  Hung out with us at the hostel in Doolin, and was just generally cool.  

Weirdest

Does-Not-Wash-His-Hands Mike:  It wasn't so much that we disliked Mike--we didn't.  Mostly it was that the hostel he was running was SO FUCKING WEIRD.  And he really needed to learn to wash his hands.

Scared-of-Roads Lady:  Was hilariously terrified of the roads and convinced we were going to die on them. It was a country road that I would have felt safe walking across blindfolded.

Cesare:  On our last night in Dublin, Cesare walked up to me and handed me a note...about how I seemed so nice and would I like add him on Facebook?  Kisses, Unforgettable CeCe.

The Kilkenny Quartet:  On a (Monday) night at the bar in Kilkenny, Claire and I got hit full force with the psycho quartet.  First was Dancing Nipple Guy, who kept licking his fingers and rubbing his nipples at us, sending us fleeing to the other side of the bar.  Second was Tony, who bought me a drink--or rather, bought himself a drink and then gave me his old pone.  Next up was Random Boy, who took my drink and dumped it on his head--we're still not entirely sure why.  And finally, winner of the night, was a boy who sat down next to me, and before I knew what was happening, unzipped my jacket, grabbed my boobs, and then told me they were lovely and I should show them off more.  Then he tried to get me to kiss him, for a good ten minutes, before throwing out a "Just kidding, I just wanted to see if you would do it."  The best part was that at the end of the night, the bartender told us he's one of the best Irish boys we could ever hope to find.

05 October 2012

Ireland Part II: Our Favorite Places

Day two of the itinerary, it's favorite places time!  With pictures!

In the order that we reached them, here are our favorite places:

County Wicklow



It wasn't just that Wicklow is drop-dead beautiful/we had good weather/there are sheep.  We also met some of our most favorite people on the trip in Wicklow, including Clement, Brian, and Barry the Nice Cyclist, who stopped for a half hour to help us untangle Claire's backpack strap from her gears. 

Kilkenny

Kilkenny was brilliant in spite of the touristy-ness because it was adorable.  The town was really cute, the castle was fun, and we entertained ourselves by imitating statues, finding Diagon Alley, and taking ridiculous pictures with the pirate duck.  Also, we ate lunch in a shop called Bla Bla Bla Sandwiches.  What more could anyone require?








Ardmore

Best little coastal town ever!  With a beach made of real sand!  Really pretty cliffs as well and a sweet shipwreck.







Also, we bought Jedward popping chocolate bars.  Mine were defective and did not pop.  So basically, mine was the more accurate depiction of Jedward.  


Cashel/Hore Abbey

Cashel itself was pretty cool, but even more amazing were the ruins of Hore Abbey, right across the street.  We climbed over walks and around cows to play there.  Claire probably described it best when she referred to it as a "giant adult-sized playground."  No, the irony of the place being called "Hore Abbey" was not lost on us.

Cashel:


SUPER AWESOMENESS NEXT DOOR:






Also, Claire got snotted on by a cow:
                                     

Killarney

Is another one that's really, really nice.  The national park in particular is beautiful to wander around in.



Dingle

Despite having the most awkward name ever, Dingle is hands-down one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to in my life.  There aren't enough words, so have some pictures.















pronounced "crack house."  Heeheehee.

County Clare

Really, really hilly and a pain in the ass to bike through, but the views made it worth it.



The Aran Islands

We did two trips to the Islands, once to Inisheer and once to Inishmore.  Both are gorgeous.  Here, have some pictures.

Inisheer:



Inishmore:






And now, a few words on our least favorite places:

Cork:  Blows.  There's nothing to do, nothing to see, and the only redeeming part of our three days there was that we spent one in Cashel, the other hanging with Poles, and the other being entertained by a really drunk guy.  

Tralee:  Also blows.  Likewise nothing to do/see.  When we asked for tourist attractions, they sent us to a windmill.  Not a cool windmill, in any sense of the word--it wasn't old, made of wood, or inhabited by Dutch people.  It was just...a windmill.  Also, the hostel was really, really, REALLY weird. 

Dungarvan:  The town itself was very pretty, but we got chased out of the B and B the next morning by the crazed Rose, who shut off our water and told us it was our fault we couldn't take showers and didn't we know she didn't have time to deal with us because she had to go to the funeral of some kid of OD'ed on bad ecstasy?  After much argument, she offered to boil us water so we could take showers in the sink, which confused us greatly...mainly because we hadn't meant to check into Ye Olde Taverne Inne circa 1760.  After even more argument, she finally let us take showers in a different room.  The thing is, had she just let us do that the first time around, we would have been out in 15 minutes.  As it was, the entire process took almost an hour, and was exceptionally irritating.  So there you go.  The Old Rectory, Dungarvan, County Waterford.  Don't stay there, ever.  Unless you enjoy washing your hair in the sink, in which case...nah, forget it.  Wash your hair in a sink owned by nicer people.

The first hostel we stayed in the second time we were in Dublin:  Right underneath the train tracks.  Super dirty.  When we were first given beds, we discovered that someone was sleeping in one of them and not paying for it, at which point we were moved to the back house.  There were rats.  No, just...no.

Ring of Kerry:  It's not so much that the Ring itself sucks (it doesn't).  Mostly it was just that we did a bus tour, and did not enjoy it.  The bus never stopped where we wanted to stop, and always stopped where we didn't want to be...at which point we promptly abandoned the bus and found our own cool things, and then wound up holding the bus up for forever.  Every.  Single.  Stop.  So Ring of Kerry is cool, just don't do a bus tour.

Clifden:  Same deal.  Clifden is great, it's just that Irish public transportation blows lameballz and we only had two hours to run around.  When I gaped at the driver upon hearing this news, he told me, "It's up to God to please you now, because I can't."  Extra minus points for Irish busses for religious references.

And that's about it!  See you guys back here tomorrow for a detailed account of all our favorite people!