Southern Ireland

It is safe to say this was the best weekend yet! Lots of good craic, with good people, in the most beautiful of places!

On Friday the whole group headed to Glendalough in Co. Wicklow. Gelndalough translates to

"lake between two mountains" and it is just that! Glendalough is similar to what we would call as Nature Preserve or State Park. Not only are two glacial lakes, there is a wonderful, large waterfall and 2 ruins of old burial grounds, each with a shell of an old church. We walked along both lakes and hiked up along the waterfall. It was a lovely day to spend roaming around the park. Again, for those who have seen the move PS I Love You, the scene where Hilary Swank and her friends are canoeing around the lake, lose their paddles and are then saved by the handsome Irish man was filmed in this lake!

From Glendalough, about 20 out of the 40 students from the group, got onto a smaller coach for our weekend away on our last tour with Caroline. We drove through Co. Wicklow and for the first time I felt as though I was not in Ireland any more. Co. Wicklow is very mountainous, but these mountains are very brown with little vegetation, and they're very rocky and enormous. Towards the southern edges of Co. Wicklow it begins to get green again, and we drove over the bridge where another scene of PS I Love You was filmed. (The scene when Hilary Swank is walking along the road/bridge and claims to be lost).

The drive down to Dingle took about 3 1/2 hours from Glendalough. It was dark for most of the ride so I didn't get to see much scenery, but after traveling around so much already, it does begin to look the same. We arrived at the Rainbow Hostel around 8:30 and quickly headed into the lovely little village of Dingle for a quick bite and a pint at Murphy's Pub. Dingle is the smallest village that I have to been to, but it is quaint and beautiful. It is on the edge of the peninsula with great a great harbor, lots of fresh fish, and little shops and pubs. Another one of Dingles little treasures, is that is a one of the few towns left that is Irish speaking, so many of the pubs and stores have Irish names! John, Caroline's cousin and his friend Louis met us for our tour and took us on a small pub crawl. We went to the smallest pub in Dingle for another pint, then up the street for live music!

On Saturday about 12 of us woke up early and headed to the harbor to board a boat and go see Fungie. Fungie is the only known bottle-nose dolphin in Ireland. Because of the location of Dingle relative to the gulf-stream, the water is fairly warm, so he migrated up to Dingle in 1983. It was a great way to start the day! It was a bit cold out, but still beautiful! We went just outside the harbor and waited to spot Fungie, and we did! We were on little boats, so we had to split

up the group and take two boats out, so we would race to see him first, so in the end, we were speeding all around and chasing Fungie. For a while, Fungie was swimming right beside us, and gave us quite the show!

After hanging out with Fungie, we headed down the peninsula, following a very narrow, windy road, on the edge of the cliff. Here began the outstanding scenery. We were surrounded by open ocean, islands, cliffs, green pastures and grazing animals! The area is not heavily populated at all, only small houses and farms, unlike much of the coast in the States. We stopped to see the Prehistoric Beehive Huts, once used by monks. They're just like rock igloos, quite cool!

We then made it to the best part. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful Slea Head beach, nestled at the bottom of enormous cliffs. We had lunch on the top the cliffs and then made our way down for our own version of the polar-bear plunge. We shed our shoes, rolled up our pants and ran right into the waves. You know how much I love the ocean, so for me, I didn't hesitate at all. We hung out for a couple hours, climbing the rocks, checking out the caves, sinking in the quick sand, playing soccer, volleyball and a couple games of capture the flag. It was phenomenal. By the end we were all soaked with the salty, cold, Atlantic.

From here we headed to Kilarney, and just like little kids who are exhausted from playing so much, the bus was silent as we all passed out for the whole ride.

Kilarney is another lovely Irish village, bigger than Dingle but offering the same thing, pubs and shops. Again, we went out for dinner, had a round of "Irish" Car Bombs, a glass of Guinness with a shot of Baileys in it. It tastes delicious. We headed to two more pubs, the last being the best. We listened to Armonic, a great band! We knew every cover song they sang, and they were quite happy with our energy! After they finished we made friends with the lead singer, a lovely lady from Belgium and the guitarist from Louisiana. It was very fun!

On sunday we headed back to Dublin, stopping at the Blarney Castle. I did kiss the Blarney stone on Valentines day. I thought it suited the occasion very well. Can't say I feel chattier than usual, but I apparently have now been blessed with the gift of gab. Sadly, it is a tourist trap, built around a myth, but oh well, I kissed it. It was a bit nerve-racking. As you can see I

had to lean backwards, hold onto two bars and scoot downwards to kiss the stone. It is, of course, located at the very top of the castle, and it feels as though you're going to fall right through the gap between the wall and the floor of the castle.

After a great weekend we made it back to Dublin, and thoroughly exhausted we all hunkered down, relaxed and prepared for our week. This week we all have our first paper due. I'm writing about Charles Parnell, a politician, the leader of the Home Rule Party in the mid 1880s. We'll see how it goes.

This week we are going to see a play, unfortunately I don't remember what is it, but I will give a review on it. This is our first weekend in Dublin in the past three weekends, so I'm very excited. I'm not sure what will be going on, but perhaps we'll visit Dun Laoghaire, or spend some time in Pheonix Park.

The Gaelic Games season is starting up so I hope to catch a game of Gaelic Football and a Hurling match!

I'm still loving Ireland, a bit more every day. I can't believe that I have been here for a month! The time surely does fly by, a bit too quickly! Our classes end in only a few weeks, then I'll be visiting Ali, one of my Wheaton roommates in Spain! I'm very excited, she's in Cordoba, but she might be planning a trip to the Canary Islands! I can't even imagine! and then MOM COMES! I can't wait for her to come to Ireland, and she'll be staying in Dingle! How perfect! You should start practicing your Irish phrases! Dia dhuit (Jee-a-dich) means good day or hello!