Good Craic

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So, as many of you know, I left for Ireland on the 11th of March. Here's a day-ish by day-ish account of my time there:

Day One: I flew in to Dublin Airport and then immediately hopped on a bus to Cork, which is in Southern-ish Ireland. Once in Cork, I met up with a guy named Ruairi (which means red-haired in Irish, I believe), and an American guy named Jay from NY. Why did I meet these two humans in particular, you may ask. The answer? www.couchsurfing.com. If you travel often, check it out! It's good, as long as you're careful about it. Anyway, Ruairi was my host for the night, and Jay was also surfing Ruairi's couch.

It was Ruairi's birthday, so we ended up going dancing and hanging out with a bunch of his friends, one of whom apparently looks like Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Malcolm (sp?) in Jurassic Park), so we all called him Jeff Goldblum the rest of the night. Ruairi told me I looked really similar to Alexis Bledel (sp?) (from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Sin City, look her up on www.imdb.com), but I dunno. You decide. Anywho, I had great fun hanging out with all of them, and even acquired a couple of pretend gay best friends for the night (I was telling Alan that I loved gay men because they always tell you you're beautiful and fabulous, so he told me he could be my gay best friend for the night, and he told me I'm beautiful and fabulous :)).

Day 2: Had a traditional Irish breakfast with my Irish friends (and the one American friend). It consisted of mushrooms, baked beans, a fried egg, ham, sausage, and toast. It was pretty good, considering I don't particularly care for mushrooms or baked beans. If you ate them with other things they tasted fine.

Anyway, after that we headed over to Blarney Castle, where I kissed the Blarney Stone! Woot woot! It was crazy going through the castle, because it felt like we just kept going up and up and up. And it looked smaller than it actually was. I have to admit though, actually kissing the Blarney Stone was a little anti-climatic. But definitely worth it, and we have a fun time together, as you can see in the pics :)

Near Blarney Castle are the wishing steps. Legend has it that if you walk up and down them closing your eyes without opening them once and while thinking constantly of your wish, the witch trapped nearby has to grant it. So I did. Which is one of the pics that my American friend Jay so obligingly took.

After Blarney Castle, I hopped on a bus to Galway. The next couple of days will be in the posts to follow!

Clubbing

Oh good grief, it's been a long time since I've updated this. Which means a lot of stupid pictures that I'll have to put up. Oh well, my own fault I guess. First thing's first, clubbing.

About, oh... 4 weeks ago, I went out dancing with the twins, Bea, a kid named Pablo, and another friend of theirs we met along the way named Javi. First thing's first, a picture of the Fabulous Four (which is what I've decided I'm going to call Santi, Isma, Bea, and I, because they are the three I always hang out with). Fab 4 for short. Lol.














Dancing with them was a lot of fun, and really different from when you dance in the US. Because in the US, you NEVER see boys dancing together, because everyone in the states is scared that people will mistake them for being homosexual. Yet in Spain, there's no such stigma, so the boys dance together and the girls dance together and no one cares. So it was lots of fun to watch the boys dancing. The only thing is I'm a HORRIBLE dancer, and somehow I ended up with friends who are all really good dancers, so I look like a complete idiot when I'm dancing with them. I also look like an albino whenever I take pictures with them. Lol.

Anyway, their friend Javi apparently told Santi that I am a beautiful person. Which is a nice compliment, but I was hoping it was simply a friendly compliment. No such luck. Let me tell you a little about Javi. He is... the best word to describe him, is nerd. When I met him he was wearing a sweater over a collared shirt. Later, I learned that under his sweater he also wore suspenders. The worst part was that he was wearing MAJOR floods. And he was a horrible conversationalist. Worse than me, which is saying something, because I am, in general, pretty bad. (Ex. At one point he asked me if I had any brothers or sisters, so I told him. His response? "Cool." Nothing else. Lol.)

Anyway, as we were walking back to the cars, Javi said (and I quote), "So... I have a car... if you want I could take you home." Me: "Um... I have to go with Santi and Isma." Translation: "I don't even KNOW you. Why would I go home with you?!" At one point he told me that he wanted me and everyone else to go to a local hangout spot in La Mora during the afternoon, and then afterwards, just me and him, to go "For a long walk on the beach, in the sun." And because he asked in front of everyone, I couldn't just flatly turn him down, so instead I asked "And what happens if there is no sun tomorrow?" (As it rainy, not the apocalypse). Everyone got a good laugh out of that, but I still somehow got wrangled into giving this Javi kid my number and later, my msn. Luckily, he's only texted me once, and only asked me to get on msn once.

Anyway, these are some of the pictures from the next day. We did indeed end up going to La Mora Mar Restaurante, and for a walk, but thankfully I didn't have to go anywhere alone with Javi.

Anyway, from left to right: Me, Bea, Javi, Pablo, Isma, Santi
















Also, I learned from Santi that his car had no name (gasp!). So, we named his car Paco :) No worries now! (Except that my little brother has been let loose upon the streets of Moab... =p)