Ireland: Bringing the magic.

Can I just say: WOW.

We - Emily, Alison, and I - got there at 9:00 Friday morning, hit up an ATM and some coffee and breakfast, and an hour later as we walked down the middle of O'Connell Street, I said, "Guys, it may be too soon to say this, but I think Ireland is my favorite place in the world."

And Alison said, "I think an hour is way too soon to know that."

And I said, "No, because sometimes you just know. Like when you meet the right man and he just brings the magic. Dublin brings the magic."

She laughed at me then. But I was right. We had one of the best four-day weekends of the decade. I of course cannot do it justice in a blog post. But I'll do my best to paint a picture of it.

We stayed in The Shining hostel. Scary, right? Who would want to stay in a place called The Shining? I guess we're on a different continent from Colorado, so it's okay. Our room had five bunk beds, hot pink walls and flowery curtains. Roommates came and went but they were all nice and most of them went to bed early. I should mention: We never went to bed later than 10:00. BAM. It was awesome.

Bucket List: Stay in a hostel. Check.

When we got there Friday we found out we couldn't check into the hostel for four hours, so we pulled out Matt Brown's email/Marauder's Map and consulted it for something to do. We also asked the hostel lady. She said do Wicklow. He said do Glendalough. They were similar only his idea was better. So we did Glendalough.

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Day 1: Glendalough. The ruins of an old old old monastery up around two lakes nestled in the highlands south of Dublin. One of the most breath-takingly, indescribably beautiful places I have ever seen. *cue Sigur Ros song: maybe "Glosoli"* It was freezing, too, which just added to the lack of breath. I could hardly even talk, it was so gorgeous. I'll post pictures soon (probably mostly on Facebook). Dad, I couldn't stop thinking of you and wishing with every particle of my being that I could share those moments with you. You and the mountains are meant to be together. And I wanna be in the middle of that somewhere, too. Maybe....just maybe.....we'll go back some day. Who knows. :)

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Day 2: We did Dublin.

-Art Museum

-Trinity College

-Book of Kells: elaborately decorated gospels copied around 800 AD by Celtic monks

-Writers' District

-Some award-winning Yeats exhibit we stumbled upon. Fantastic - got me all into Yeats all over again.

-Dublin Castle

-Christ Church Cathedral

-St. Patrick's Cathedral

-The Temple Bar (didn't stay very long -- it was already NUTS at 5:30 pm - those Irish KNOW how to party)

-Grafton Street: muuuusaaaak! It's in a scene in Once and Damien Rice got his start there, apparently. It's a commercial street -- shops everywhere, musicians and street performers on the corners. Like Cornmarket here in Oxford only way better.

I [heart] Dublin.

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Day 3: This day we wanted to see some other random place in Ireland that would be different from Dublin. I kind of wanted to see Belfast because C.S. Lewis grew up there. But the lady at the Tourist Info place -- well, first let me just tell you about them.

[Aside about people] We stumbled upon this place within the first ten minutes of being dropped in city center on Friday morning. It was right next to the ATM we were directed to. Can anyone say: Divine guidance? :) A note about Irish people (at least the ones we met): They are incredibly friendly. It was a big change from Oxford. I'm sorry but the British don't like confronting or being confronted by strangers. Irish people, they seem to love it. We couldn't stand on a street corner for more than three minutes before someone came up and said, "Where are you trying to get yourselves to?" So the people at the Tourist Info Center loved us ("Bless me, three Oxford scholars??!?") and helped us so much. And gave Alison way more pamphlets than she knew what to do with. (I think she ended up with at least three pamphlets in French for the Book of Kells.)

Back to Day 3. The Tourist Info Lady told us if it were her, she would go to Kilkenny: quaint, quiet, snug, with castles. We thought it sounded perfect. So we took the bus for two hours to Kilkenny which is south-west of Dublin. The night before it had snowed so the bus drive was past fields and villages under a sleepy blanket of snow (also, it was Sunday morning, so everything was hushed). Beautiful. Kilkenny was just small enough to explore all day and be done with a cup of hot chocolate by 5:00 to head back to Dublin. Lovely.

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Day 4: Coastal villages around Dublin. Namely, Howth, Dalkey, Killiney, and Bray.

Howth was probably my favorite but that might be because we spent the most time there and had the most energy because that's where we started. I mean, think "Ireland" and Howth was it. Those movies you see where they're walking on a grassy path along a cliff overlooking the sea? Yeah, that's Howth. We climbed straight through the middle of town to the Summit (two or three miles? -- it felt like a freaking marathon). I think I took a million pictures. It was incredible. We also saw seals. You can ask Alison about that. It was probably the highlight of her LIFE.

Dalkey. We basically got off the train, walked through town, decided not to pay to see the castle, perused a few bookshops (because Emily was trying to find a copy of some William Blake book) and got back on the train. I feel like I should go back and do it justice one day.

Killiney. Two words: Bono's house. ;-) Yes, it was there. And I can see why. One of the most beautiful views in the entire universe, I'm pretty sure. Killiney is basically one really steep hill. Honestly, by the end of the day, between Howth, Killiney, and Bray, we had basically climbed three mountains. So in Killiney, we ran out onto the beach and skipped pebbles into the waves and then finally got up the guts to wind our way through the EXTREMELY RITZY neighbourhoods to the park on top of the hill. (And when I say "hill" think, like . . . Mount Everest.) That's where we saw Bono's house. We weren't sure which one was his at the time, so we just took pictures of all of them. His was under a tarp. I guess he's renovating.

Top of the Hill: Killiney Hill park. The park in Once where she tells him she loves him. Oh yeah.

Bray: We were so exhausted by this point (our food consisted mostly of carbs and chocolate so you can imagine how my blood sugar was not sustaining itself) that we didn't do much more than walk through town to a coffee shop. But Bray is beautiful. It has another giant hill.

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Then we headed back to Dublin and to the airport and arrived back at home-sweet-Oxford at 4:00 am this morning. Today I finished three analysis paragraphs, went to a tutorial with Josh, and cooked dinner for my food group. And it was all totally okay because Ireland is still a refreshing breeze in the back of my mind. Also, it's just good to be home again.

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Random other things we saw/did/experienced:

-Most of our meals were baguettes, cheese, and Nutella. So cheap. So NOT nutritious.

-There was almost no point in this whole trip that I wasn't cold. I seriously could not get warm. It was kind of dreadful. It's much windier on the east coast of Ireland than it is in the south/middle of England. Just sayin'.

-Let's just say we didn't shower much. I shouldn't even include that fact in this blog. Hunt won't let it go.

-I bought Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief in Dublin for four euros. Yes, I did. And I read it out loud to Alison and Emily when we waited for buses. And then they got hooked and we all three finished it before the trip was out. Now I have to locate the sequel. It's funny, I read the American version of Harry Potter and the British version of Percy Jackson. It's like I'm confused or something. (And, yes, there are differences in the two versions. Minor, but funny. Like when Percy was wearing a knitted tank-top. Wha--?)

-I thought about Sarah more constantly than I thought it was possible to think of one human being.

Wow, that was a novel. James Joyce would be proud. (Only probably not.)

Go to Ireland some day. :)

[Music - Lisa Hannigan; 'cause she got her start in Dublin, too!]