Monday, March 28, 2011

Ellen in Wonderland

Hey hey everyone! I have been gone WAY too long! I have missed blogging a bit but at the same time I've just had wayyy too much fun exploring :D

I kicked off my spring break like any smart person would do who is travelling in Europe: Dublin for St. Patrick's day. Oh. My. God. Best day!!! We landed in Ireland just before noon on the day of green and let me tell you, a swift punch to the jaw probably couldn't have taken the gigantic smile off of my face. I was SO happy. To be honest, happy probably isn't an accurate word. Ecstatic? jumping for joy? None seem to do my level of happy any justice. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel we were staying in and hit the city where anywhere you looked you saw a mass of green moving. I loved how many people we everywhere. It made it that much more fun.

The bars we stuffed with people. I tried my first Belfast Bomber (aka-Irish Car Bomb), which was quite tasty to be honest. And I think I may have drank an entire keg of Guinness by the end of the day...So good! I also met a bunch of really cool Irish people that I got to hang with for the majority of the day and they took me to the most exclusive club in Europe (apparently-I'm not positive on this information) called Coppers. It was so much fun! What a great day of my People! lol!

While in Dublin my group hit up the Guinness Storehouse where we learned how Guinness is made and I bought a t-shirt. I'm still trying to figure out what color it is...I think I've finally narrowed it down to black or really really really dark green.

Just a side note on the food...DELICIOUS. Holy cow! is it good! And there is so so much of it I think I about died. I had stew and tried a couple different pies. OH! And I ate some lamb liver...that was...interesting. I would probably never in my life eat lamb liver again, but hey, had to try it once.

Saturday a group of seven of us rented a car to drive to the western part of Ireland. This is the thing, and let me tell you, there was MUCH laughing in the situation probably to keep from crying to be quite honest. We were supposed to get a seven seater van that our sokindfriend Terence would drive seeing as he's twenty-seven oldest and could rent the car there. BUT the car company neglected to inform us that the age to rent that car was 30. REALLY?! ugh...so instead we got a Savoy. For seven of us. And all of our crap. :D So Alyssa and I sat in the trunk yes there were seats AND seatbelts...not that we would have gone anywhere if we had crashed anyway... with the giganto suitcase. It was sooo fun...

We made it to Galway though. A little smushed but in one piece. We walked around in the rainy Irish weather and just hung out. Laughs were had. It was all good. But the super cool part happened the next day. I met my Irish family!!!!!! EEEE!!!! :D

I took the train to Westport and they picked me up. It was so nice to meet them! They are such sweet people and they took good care of me. I especially fell in love with my fifth cousin Selina. She's nine and adorable and reminds me of my cousin Maura. They even look a little bit alike which is supah cool!

Note: Gigantic meal of Achill Island, Ireland: 7 regular sized pieces of roast beef, a small mound of somekindof fried potato, bread pudding, a mound of mashed potatoes, a large side of garlic mashed potatoes with cheese on top, AND a large salad. I almost exploded.

I left for London on Monday from the Dublin airport to go and see the city and a friend who is studying there at St. Mary's in Twikenham (about 30 minutes outside the city). It was great to have a tour guide! I even got to be on his radio show that he co-hosts! I loved the city, but since I was sick at this point I didn't have as much energy to do and see as many things as I normally would....which is totally unfortunate! But I still had a blast! I loved seeing this city that has been the center of many of the stories (Harry Potter, what?!) I have read over the years.

It was a great break! (Minus the sick part) I'm really looking forward to my beach vacation this coming weekend. Oh what a life I live... ;)

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