famous church...forget the name
liffey river in the day (separates nothern and southern Dublin)
Trinity College
Outside the Dublin Bunkhouse (one of the hostels we stayed at)
yes, the bathrooms were co-ed. THAT was a new experience....interesting to say the least
me and sara in a pub with one of our hostel roommates. grand fun.
the famous Molly Malone statue in Dublin
me, sabrina, and sara on the Trinity College campus with my friends from ireland, Aoife and Niamph (both on the outside)
liffey river at night
part of Trinity College...so green!!!
morning we left for the airport

at aoife and naimph's house just outside the Dublin city centre
inside a gorgeous park in Dublin
feeding the duckies in the park!

so. ireland. wow you guys it was amazing. sooo fffrrreeeereezing and pretty rainy on some days which i definitely wasnt prepared for in my rainbows and tanktops, but hey who doesnt want frozen snot? then you dont have to buy kleenex. the pocket knife will work just fine to chizzle it off.

our journey began on wednesday, otober 1. we had to walk from our apts to take a bus to the bus. that may have been the most miserable part of the trip. when we first got on, it wasnt too crowded. however with each stop, abouuuttt 327 ppl got on. so that was real fun. standing room only for us, bc our backpacks that made us look like we were smuggling children did not permit us to sit. so we decided to stand in the handicapped area, which was a real good idea when the man with no legs got on the bus and we looked like ignorant imbeciles. so we had to break our separate ways to wherever we could fit our bodies and backpacks....i eventually got shoved to the back doors which i had to dodge at every stop bc they shot open and nearly gave me re constructive face surgery evertime. and then there was this old man. im all for respecting the elderly, but there is a certain point at which i dont care who you are im gonna push RIGHT back if you nudge me every second so you can be more comfortable he kept pushing me further and further from the pole and i was there first, im sorry old man but give me attitude and you just be praying that i dont use that cane for somethin else....and the hair. oohhhh the hair. no, not on his head, not on his arms...you would NOT believe the hair that was sprouting from his ears and nose that was reaching out and attacking me. it was all i could do to not vomit out the window. oh and his arm. he kept trying to get the upper arm on the pole to hold on to, and every time we hit a bump his disgusting old man arm flab would loom above me and brush my shoulder. i finally had to lean over so it wouldnt touch me. it was THAT bad. the torturous ride finally ended and we got to our next bus 4 mins before it left. that bus was from granada to seville. we stayed the night in seville, bc we flew out of the airport there on thrusday, october 2. oh that plane ride. may have been the worst ariline i have ever flown with. it was ryaniar, which is pretty cheap, but you get what you pay for. im sorry but if you take up so much of the aisle that you launch the person sitting on the end into the person sitting by the window, you probably shouldnt be a flight attendent.....and you also shouldnt bend over in a skirt in heals that you cant even walk in. but anyway. the flight was kinda rough and the landing left much to be desired, but all in all it could have been worse, so i'll stop there and i wont mention the 8 yr old wearing pumps spinning her baribe doll in front of my face that took everything inside of me not to punt across the plane. after the plane was stopped, everyone suddenly had huge coats and the flight attendants put on long snow coats and we were so confused as to why. maybe this was a lay over and they were going to Antarctica after? but after i got off the plane, i realized why they had them. it was for the weather in ireland. when i got off of the plane and stepped outside, only a few select words came out of my mouth. it was freezing butt cold.

so we stayed our first two nights in dublin at the dublin bunkhouse which is less than a year old, but the building itself was over 300 years old. so the location was really great, and the facilities quite nice. my two friends i met in the states when they went to school there for two years, aiofe and niamh ( twins) met us outside our hostel the first night (they live just outside the dublin city centre). we went to their house, then their friend's house, then to some bars, but went back to the hostel pretty early so we could have a good day the next day. so ireland is an hour behind, and somehow we just couldnt figure out how that would work with setting our alarm, and we ended up waking up 2 hours early (at 730 am) on friday, october 3, and couldnt figure out why the other 14 ppl in our room were sleeping so late....we didnt figure it out until we were eating breakfast and realized we were way more tired that we thought we should be and some guy at our table was like ''its only 830". we had already been up for an hour...so emb. my friends met us at our hostel again that afternoon, and showed us around dublin. we went to the famous molly milone statue, trinity college, this GORGEOUS park with a pond where we fed the ducks, and saw this old lady feeding pigeons. i cried. old ppl like that just get me. its the ones that push with their hairy flab on a bus and disgusting dencher breath that i have no tolerance for. but this one was quite a sight. it was like the birds knew her. i personally hate pigeons and want to do nothing more than kick their mangy feathers, but she really had a way with them. that night we had a nice familiar dinner at TGI Friday's, quite a nice change from our deLECtable spanish cuisine, and stuffed our faces till we had hangovers--from our stomachs hanging over our pants, not from alcohol. after walking around a bit with the girls, we made our way back to the hostel. about 2 hours after we went to sleep, we had some delightful scottish drunks (**side note** there are two ppl sucking each others face off right now at the table next to me what the hek take it easy on the PDA, COMPOSURE PPL!!) somehow get into our room, they werent staying there, and start screaaming at the top of their lungs. that was quite a treat. they were looking around counting all the guys in the room, asking where the women were for the orgy. so at that point i stood up and screamed OVER HERE, HERE I AM! jk. i hid under my blanket as if it was the only thing i knew how to do. finally they left, but about 10 mins later they sent the drunkest one back in to sing. i nearly got up and took his man-hood straight out of him, but another guy in the room jumped out of bed and pushed him out of the room and bolted the door. so that was fun. on saturday, october 4, we took a 4-hr bus through the countryside to galway. it was absolutely breath-taking. exactly how i imagined it. cows, sheep, and horses grazing in the GREENEST grass you have ever seen, in the yards of beautiful houses, lined with rock walls. i couldnt stop staring. it was as if i was inside a postcard. so when we got to galway it was poouurrrrinnngg rain and we had no umbrella, or a clue as to where our hostel was. we shamefully stopped at a tourist information center, got directions, and were on our way. as we were shleping through the streets, we saw a guy that was in our same room in our hostel in dublin, who had also made his way to galway, and was meeting up with another guy we had all met in our hostel in dublin who also came to galway. we found out we were not only in the same new hostel as one of them, but in the same room as well. what are the chances. after we found this out, he told us we were walking in the complete wrong direction and told us where it ACTUALLY was. freaking irish information center. when we got to our hostel, woodquey hostel, the precious lady at the desk gave us a memorized speech on the history of galway and some pointers on some good places to go. she wasnt too savvy with the computer, so she gave our reservation to someone else by accident and asked if it would be okay if we were put in another room, without the same accommodations, but with a bit of a discount. having the experience i do with my mother and computers, i had a bit of sympathy and we all decided that would be just fine. she was so relieved it was presh. we made our way up to the room, met some of our roommates who were from switzerland, and then headed out for the night with the two guys that we met in dublin. we just picked a random pub that had a sign advertising live music later on in the night, and thankfully got a table. after a bit of time holy hell it was crowded. getting up to go the bathroom was quite a feat to accomplish. when the band started to play....wow. it was the most incredible experience. irish men swinging their pints of beer from side to side, singing and dancing along to the traditional irish music, becoming friendlier as the night went on, teaching us words to the irish songs. it was a total blast. i cant even put to words what an awesome experience it was. i took some videos on my camera, but it hardly captures the enthusiasm that was in that bar. one of the best nights i have had. i felt so irish. that night when we got back most of the ppl in our room were already sleeping, so we couldnt meet the rest of them. two of them however came back once we were in bed and left the light on. the person in the bunk above me decided he wasnt going to put up with that, and jumped down to turn it off. i looked up just in time to see zebra panties hovering above my head making their was down to the floor. no one knows why they werent wearing pants, it was about negative 100. the next morning that same person got up before we did, and it was a guy. and yes, i am positive. the zebra panties? im still trying to figure that out. id rather not talk about it. on sunday, october 5, we moved to one of the top-rated hostels in ireland, to the kinlay house. it was huuuuuge and very nice, and only ten bucks a night for the room we were in. after we checked in, we made our way to the city. the day before someone told us that it would definitley rain that day bc in 7 years it had never not rained on a sunday. well let me tell you, we brought the sunshine! it was a beautiful day. still as cold as a witch's titty in a brass bra, but sunny with blue skies. we were sooo thankful. the day before we wanted to kill ourselves walking around like wet cats trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. so when the sun came out, we were ecstatic. we walked to the beach...wow. there was a promenade walk with a lighthouse at the end, rocks all around and the stillest ocean water youve ever seen. it was soooo pretty. we then went to a street market, got the irish claddagh ring, and some delicious chili, then a crepe, then some dinner, then a ''naughty crepe''. i got one with banana and melted chocolate. we need to get those goin in spain. me and sara then encountered the drunkest Australian you have ever seen in our hostel, chattin up a storm about life. it was actually pretty enjoyable, and he surprisingly remembered us the next day. that night's sleep was the worst. the guy in the bunk right next to me....the snoring. i have never heard such noises come out of a single human being. he may as well have been inside my brain. it was sooooo tortuously loud. i tried doing the loud SHUTUP cough or the sigh..i even pushed his bed. nothing worked. it took everything inside of me to not get up and punch the stranger in the face. monday, october 6, we took a bus back to dublin, hung out in the city a bit, and we met up with the girls again that night and they drove us around the town, then to another ocean point, and then we parked and had a nice irish chat. we loved it. we got to bed at about 130AM, and had to wake up at 330AM to catch a bus to the airport at 430AM, which didnt get there until 5AM. we werent tired or annoyed at all. cheerful morning people. when we got to our gate at the airport, the screen had a different flight number and destination, but our tickets still said that gate so we just stayed. we were supposed to board at 715 and finally at about 730, one of the flight attendants came and took us to another gate. you would have thought that the first person to get there would win the lottery. it was a MAD HOUSE. ppl were RUNNING, pushing, trampling to be first bc it was free seating on the plane. ppl were taking advantages of having elderly in wheelchairs, but that didnt phase me, i just gave them speed bumps to go over. after all the ridiculous rude ppl pushin me around, i suddenly found that i had to keep my elbows out at all times, i just couldnt get them to go in... it was pouring rain when we boarded too, so that didnt help the my-life-is-coming-to-an-end-hurricane status. some ppl behind us pushed and raced ahead of us to get to the back entrance of the plane bc the other line was miles long, but they got there and it was roped off. but i was like eff this im goin anyway. there was no way in hell i was gonna trek back in the rain and wait for all those beezys to get settled as i slowly but surely became a soggy mess in my flip-flops. i wobbled over to the other set of stairs and began ascending. i asked the flight attendant at the top, and shes like sure come on in. GOLDEN. haha serves ya right suckerrrsssss but they saw us get in and turned around and followed. what leaders we are. once i got on the plane, some smelly lady decided it would be best to lean on my from the aisle, no one knows why. it wasnt crowded yet, and she kept boobing me with her triple G's as she loomed over me as if i asked her to rub her meat hooks on me and to please hide me and if i had begged her to smell her breath. like really? is that necessary? sit down. and not on me, for a change. after the plane landed, we took a bus to the bus station, i got in a fight with the man serving me salad bc he wouldnt listen to me that there were 3, actually 3, bugs in the vinegar and kept telling me that the leaf was to preserve it. i freaking know, im talking about the dang insects swooshing around in it. i wanted to pour it on him. THESE BUGS, senor. our bus back to granada finally came, and there was a nun on it by herself while we were waiting and the second we all got on she started ''praying'' with her rosary. right. WOW YOU ARE SUCH A DEDICATED GODLY NUN! noooot, i saw you sleeping this whole time, ya lint licker. after nearly pissing my panties, literally, on a 3 hour bus ride back to granada, we finally reached familiar grounds, made it up to our pisos, and showered. it was great. well, due to the lack of sleep/warmth/water in the past week, i still have snot launching out of my nose and its not as freezing cold, so it wont freeze and i gotta go get a kleenex. slash i might as well use a toilet seat cover because they are the same material here, im convinced.

love to you all

besos

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”

--samuel johnson