"This isn´t Germany..."

After ten, sleep-deprived, bus-ride filled, crazy amazing days, I´m back in Spain.

To quote the incomparable Julie Andrews, let´s start at the very beginning. I think I was born to be in Scotland. Edinburgh is outstanding beyond words. Literally. The city is so quiet, and I think it´s mostly because every person living there is in constant awe of how phenominal the place is. Did you know the entire downtown area is a UNESCO Heritage Site? Every building is stone and gothic and towering. Edinburgh Castle extends all along a fabulous cliff in the Old Quarter, and a pristine park lines a river that cuts in the city in half. One night, we had dinner at the Elephant House, a little cafe where J.K. Rowling first start writing Harry Potter. A big sign in the window advertised it as "The Birthplace of Harry Potter: Now Serving Draught Beers!"

We took a bus trip from Edinburgh one day to Glasgow, Sterling, and Loch Lomond. It´s banks are indeed quite bonny, and we came upon a castle in a big park that lines its shore. Castles pop up all over the place in the Scottish highlands...so it was pretty typical. ;) Our tour guide was named Ian, wore plaid pants and tie, and looked and sounded exactly like Sean Connery. I can imagine no better person to teach me about the country.

We flew to Galway on a plane with propellers instead of engines and less than 50 passengers. It was a tiny town, much smaller than I expected, but with a large student population. We all agreed that Galway is what Newark, Delaware aspires to be. We took a Ferry to Inishmore of the Aran Islands the morning after arriving. With a population of about 800 and Gaelic as the local dialect, this was pretty much the most immersed we could get in Irish culture. We rented bikes and spent five hours touring the little, farm-covered island. At the end, we visited a pre-historic fortress built in 1,000 B.C. on the edge of some completely amazing cliffs. Although the best Irish whool is found on the Islands, I was too cheap to buy anything. Despite our buying grocieries for most meals, the British pound killed me in Scotland and the euro doesn´t get you much up north either... Also, after a day of intense searching, I cannot say for sure whether or not we saw a Selkie (as made famous by that classically-weird foreign film, The Secret of Roan Inish).

That night, we had dinner at a little whole-in-the-wall Irish restaurant. I enjoyed Salmon and the others had Irish Stew. It was pretty much perfect, and our waitress was very cool. When we asked if we could have our tea before the meal instead of after, she replied "It´s really up to yourself. We´re not strict here. This isn´t Germany." Though a bit Xenophobic, we were pretty thrilled to have discovered a European joke and now use it often...but only with each other

From Galway, we headed for Cork via the Cliffs of Mohr and Limerick. I found these cliffs much less exciting than those on Inishmore, and more touristy. After three bus rides full of green hilly farm land, we arrived tired and carsick in Cork. There, we met up with our friend Dawn who spent the first half of the trip with her UD roommates in Rome, making us five. A much bigger city, Cork has a strong University population as well. It felt much more industrial, but had a great shopping district and the University was pretty amazing. Kind of made me wonder how I ended up in Newark for four years... We stopped in St. Finbarre´s Cathedral and got a free and impromptu tour by Eileen, the cashier in the gift shop. We also wasted a whole morning attempting to rent a car so we could see the Ring of Kerry, but you had to be at least 23-25 and in one place 30 years old! I was pretty bummed and still wish I could say I drove on the "wrong" side of the street.

Another four-and-a-half hours of beautiful countryside by bus later, we made it to the capital city of Dublin. The fun part of town is called Temple Bar, and it is a street like Bourbon Street - though much more classy. We had a pint in Temple Bar, which to my dismay was filled with raucous 30 and 40 something drunkards. Then we headed down the street to a less crowded pub with live music, and we stayed there till close (12:00 - early!). The next day, we took a tour of the Guiness factory and had complimentary pints at 11:00 am. Then, we walked all around Dublin and saw St. Patrick´s Cathedral, the park, and Trinity College. Then we saw the closing night production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat because it is Dawn´s favorite show and we were looking for something different to do. It was her 6th time seeing it live and she said it was her favorite so far.

So that pretty much wraps up most of what went on. The hostels were great for the most part and all but one offered free toast for breakfast. We speant two nights, one at the beginning and one at the end, on the floor of the Dublin Airport so we could catch early morning flights. I promise it was much more hellish than I´m sure you´ve imagined it, though now I feel like a bone fide backpacker. AND, I ran into Casey Sharkey, Cheltenham High School class of ´05, at 4am in the Dublin airport. She was on my flight back to Madrid, and we chatted until it was time to board. Apparently we were both at the live music pub in Dublin on the same night and I thought I saw her, but then figured it was just a strong resemblance. Weird, huh?

I´m sure I forgot about half of the important stuff, but you hopefully get the idea. The weather was freezing and raining every day, but I´m not sure it´s proper to see Ireland any other way so I was pleased. Also, now I am very very poor.