Ireland Continued

Hey all, sorry I couldn't update until now but we were busy enjoying
Ireland and then the ship Intranet decided to keep cutting out and I
couldn't send any e-mails, but I'm here now so yay!
First off I hope that everyone had a good labor day weekend and
that those who are headed back to school soon are not dreading it too
much. I am currently waiting in the Union to start
my first of seven days of class this month--it is so weird to be in
class right now after spending four great days in Ireland and thinking
about getting to England tomorrow morning. None of
this feels real, I don't know that it ever really will. I can't even
begin to describe what all of this is and for that I apologize. Sarah,
Danielle and I were talking to a Life Long Learner (someone who is
retired and is auditing classes on the ship and traveling with us--side
note 90% of them have sailed with SAS before) named Barbara and she was
talking about how when we get home people are going to ask us, "how was
your trip!" and then two sentences into our explanation their eyes will
glaze over. Not because they don't want to hear about our experiences
but because most people will not understand, "unless they have done this
before or traveled extensively, they just cannot even begin to know" she
said. Now, I'm not telling you this to brag or to make you feel bad or
anything like that, I'm just trying to express how undefinable this
experience truly is.
Back to Ireland.....I am not entirely sure where I left off the
first time so I will do my best but if there is some overlap please
forgive me. If I remember correctly I told you about the Cliffs of
Moher and that Danielle and I were just relaxing instead of going to the
Pub Crawl and that is where I left off so I'll begin there. The next
morning we took our time to get ready and eat
breakfast as no one really gets much sleep on the ship either due to
rocking and the noise it produces or because we are participating in
various activities around the ship and forget what time
it is, not to mention we lost an hour almost every night coming across
the Atlantic. Anywho after that we went for a walk around Eyre Square
and up and down High Street and got lunch at
another pub called Skeffs that had really good toasties! We walked
around more after that and just enjoyed the locals and the area and
being in Ireland in general--and of course we did the
dorky tourist shopping as well because no matter how hard we try to hide
it each of us is secretly a dorky tourist on the inside. Some of us
went back to the hotel to take a quick nap or to
send some e-mails and then we headed back to Skeffs to meet Meg who had
gone a bit earlier to write blog/journal stuff. When we got there it
was packed and we found her on one side of
the main bar area. The way the pub was set up there was an entrance
with a step up on either side to two "wings" that lead back to the back
room where the sandwich bar (where we ate
earlier) was located. In the middle there was a small bar and on either
side were stairs down to the main bar floor. There were essentially
two rooms divided by the bar which didn't reach the
ceiling so you could hear the other side but not see them. (Hopefully
that makes a little bit of sense--if not sorry!) The SUPER cool thing
was that there was a painting on the side of the bar of a man sitting at
a table and every once and a while he would stretch or light a candle,
etc. It looked just like the moving paintings in Hogwarts and I got
super excited! We sat on the side of the bar that was a little less
crowded and were entertained by the two sides singing and chanting back
and fourth. Their favorite song was a rendition of "Singing in the
Rain" as it was currently drizzling outside, and we were quite amused.
--ok class is starting now (its 0920 here) but I will finish after--
Alright, I'm back. We just had a really interesting lecture on
England and the Commonwealth and migration--but back to Ireland. The
people who were on our side of the bar started to come
over and talk to us and we found out that they were a stag party
(bachelor party) and that half of them were visiting from Australia for
the party and wedding. We talked for awhile and they
told us that they were going to dress up and go to Coyotes (a bar/club)
later and that we should join them. We had been planning on stopping by
there anyway so we told them that maybe
we would see them there. Then Sarah, Danielle, Meg and I tried to find
a place for dinner but unfortunately it was raining and we got fairly
soaked and ended up finding a random little cafe
that had good, but cheap, food and surprisingly very good milkshakes.
After dropping off our wet gear at the hostel we headed over to
Coyotes. Upon entering and walking downstairs to the
dance-floor area with a mechanical bull in the back we found batman,
robin, a Scotsman and the joker sitting at the bar. Needless to say we
had found the stag party. We hung out there for a
while and ran into some more SAS kids who we danced with and some people
(including Sarah and the Joker) decided to ride the mechanical bull
which resulted in the rest of us taking pictures
and videos for future entertainment. The Scotsman told us that the
Joker was loaded and he kept buying the SAS kids drinks if they wanted
them, he literally kept shelling out 50 Euro bills--it
was a bit funny actually. It was a really fun night and we got to hang
out with some locals who showed us how to have good craic (pronounced
crack) which means a good time!
The next day we traveled to Dublin with a mass of Irish Football
(mix of soccer and rugby) fans who were headed to Dublin for the
semi-final match in the tournament which was funny because they were all
razzing each other and talking excitedly about the game. Needless to say
I nodded and smiled and pretended that I knew exactly what they were
talking about so I wouldn't look like an American Idiot. We spent the
day exploring part of Dublin (Grafton Street and St. Stephens Green) and
found the Disney store!!! We ate lunch at Captain Americas because
apparently we were on a super-hero stint and the last day I had a field
lab which was all about dead guys I didn't know---I won't go into
details so if you want them send me an e-mail. I wish we could have
stayed in Ireland but alas its on to England tomorrow. More when I
can. Love you all!
~Colleen