11:50am
Dublin, Ireland
WOW! It's my second day in Ireland and Oh. My. Goodness. I LOVE it so much! I had a friend ask me if it met my expectations, and honestly, I didn't really have any expectations. I didn't know what to think. lol! But man, oh man, it's so amazing! I'm so amazed that I'm even here. As cliche as it may sound, it literally feels like I'm in a dream. It's so surreal. God is so amazing. There is no way I could be here without Him. It's seriously a miracle.
So yesterday was our first dull day in Ireland. We arrived in Ireland on Thursday night, settled in, then went to bed. That night was interesting taking into consideration jet lag, and such. I had a pretty hard time sleeping from 4am-6am, but after that I went right to sleep and we accidentally woke up around 11am. We needed the sleep though. The main plan for yesterday was for us to meet up with my friends Mark and Cathal. They have both been my "pen pals" ( I put it in quotations because it's not really that. We're totally friends.) for the past couple of years and I really wanted to make sure that I got to see them on this trip. I mean, how could I not? I'm in Ireland. lol! Anyways, so we made plans to meet up with them at their school which is Trinity College Dublin. It was a place that I just wanted to go look at anyways because it's absolutely gorgeous! It was made in 1519 by the Queen for her court or something like that. It's BEAUTIFUL! :D So we went there to meet with them and had to stand around for a bit, which was a little nerve-wracking because I didn't want for us to keep missing each other or something. That would be a bummer. We found each other and it was so awesome! I really couldn't believe that I was actually meeting them in person! I told my mom and my Grammy, "Who gets to do that?! Who gets to meet their 'pen pals' in another country?" It's so cool!! :D So after we all said hi to each other and I introduced them to my Grammy, I was like, "Well! Show us around!" haha! So they took us to the Book of Kells exhibit, which was pretty cool! I'm still not totally sure what it is, but it was old and it had cool pictures (that sounds so dumb. lol!). Then, we went to the Long Hall (both of these places did not permit pictures) which was Trinity College's original library. It was so pretty! There were all these old books and busts of famous philosophers and writers. They had books in French in cases with descriptions by them and all of these amazing old things! Then we went to an extremely expensive little gift shop and looked at stuff. Then they showed us Trinity itself, which is just..... so awesome. The architecture of the buildings is so incredible! :D I would love to go school there. But, like Mark said, you can definitely take it for granted if you're there all the time, which is totally understandable.
After that, we decided to go to Grafton Street, which is like the place to go to see street performers and to go shopping. Mark had to leave to go home before we got there, but Cathal stayed with us and showed us around for about an hour and a half which was so nice! :)
(As you can tell, I'm still really tired. My vocabulary has digressed considerably. haha!)
So we walked around Grafton Street for a while, but most of the street performers weren't there because it was later in the day. We saw lots of cute little shops and such that we will most likely explore today when we go into the city again. Then we saw a pretty church, which was really cool. Then Cathal showed us St. Steven's Green which was really beautiful! There were flowers and ponds everywhere and the grass was so green! There was even a little waterfall and a cute little house at one of the exits (Although, I don't really know why it was there. lol!)
I have pictures of St. Steven's Green on Facebook. :)
By this time, it was about 6:30pm, so we decided that it was probably a good time to head back towards our hotel before it got dark. We decided to walk so we got to walk across one of the bridges that goes over the River Liffey which is the main river that flows through Dublin. Across the river is O'Connell Street, which is like the main drag through Dublin. We knew that our hotel was somewhere off of O'Connell Street, but we weren't sure where, exactly. So we got a little lost, but we were still on O'Connell. We asked a girl with a really thick British accent if she knew where Cathal Brugh Street (the street that our hotel was on) was and she said she didn't know at first, but then she was like, "Oh, yeah!" and she told us to go down the street and turn left and some other things that I don't remember. Lol! So then we walked down and did what she said, but we still weren't sure where we were. On our way, we went to Carroll's, which was an Irish (obviously) gift shop. I got my Irish flag while I was there!! I'm so happy that I did that! :D Grammy got her Irish Whiskey Fudge, too. haha! So we were still kinda lost after that, so we were like, "Okay, we need to ask somebody." So we went up to the security guy in front of a cell phone store...
To the guy at the store in Dublin, "Hey, do you know where Cathal Brugh Street is?" Guy at the store shakes head, "Mmm.... no." Me, "Do you know where The Academy Plaza Hotel is?"Guy, *Thinks*, "Academy Plaza Hotel...... nope, sorry."Grammy, "Ohhhh! What's the name of the pub by there?"Me "The Living Room?"Guy, " OHHHHH! Yeah, turn left down this street to the light, then left again, and you'll be there!!"
It was so funny and so typically Irish. That totally brightened my mood. He didn't know the name of the street, or the hotel, but he knew the name of the pub (well, it was more like a club). I thought that was hilarious! So we made it back to our hotel, thanks to the cell phone store security guy! By the time we got there, our feet and legs were super sore, but we were happy to be able to go to sleep! So I Skyped my mama and then went to bed! So now it's the afternoon, and we're about to go on a tour around Dublin! I'm excited about seeing more of the city! Woohoo!
P.S. My Grammy and I both got a pretty bad night's sleep last night, so please pray for strength and alertness today! Thanks! :)
You guys are awesome!
P.S.S I've gotten 100 views on this blog since I left for Ireland on Thursday! Craziness. :D
I LOVE IRELAND! I could definitely imagine myself living here. The weather's great. The people are great. The culture's great (besides the drinking part). And the scenery is AMAZING! :D
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