oh, my Irish eyes are shining!

Well, we backed it up...

Emily and I didn't sleep one bit in the London airport. It was impossible! There was too much to do... there was the Internet to mess around on, this Asian guy who kept farting to watch, and free food to eat! Yeah, that's right! Free food! These random girls sitting next to us in the airport were informed that their bags were too large, so they had to get rid of stuff, and they decided to give us all of their food. I'm pretty sure that any other time that something like this would have happened, I would have been really suspicious and wondered if they were poisoning me. However, everything, especially food, is ridiculously expensive in an airport, and we were hungry, so we decided to consume the presents from these random strangers who spoke broken English and dressed like eskimos. The food turned out to be good, and we are still alive and breathing, so all is well!

Our plane to Cork, Ireland, was pretty empty, but who really wants to fly to Ireland at 6:20AM anyway? Emily and I were smarter this time around; we declined the offers for drinks on the plane. The plane ride was the scariest one of my life, though!! I was seriously grabbing on to Emily, holding her hand, and freaking out. When we neared Cork, we started to descend, but then we started to ascend, and then it was back to descending. Our wheels went out way before we were anywhere near the ground, and we sorta tilted to the side, and ahh... it was crazy!! I'm not sure what our pilot was doing, but I did NOT enjoy it! We landed safely, though, and when we hit the ground, it was actually fairly smooth. It was a lot smoother than when we landed in Tulsa from Houston, Dad!

After we went through customs (Meaning we walked through a door that no one was attending to. Seriously, even if I had had stuff to claim, no one would have cared!), we located our bus and waited. Here I am with my huge bag that Ryanair did not make me check on:


We made our way to Sheila's hostel, and this is what greeted us:


There will be 8 of us in our room tonight. There are 6 guys, Emily, and me. It's kinda tight, but oh well! It was only $12 (Yes, that's American dollars!) a night, and the hostel itself is really nice. I'm liking it a lot more than the one in Valencia!

After we dropped off our bags and looked at a few maps, we headed off towards the center of Cork. It's the quaintest little town ever!

A river runs straight through the town, as you can see from the picture. I



That picture is for you, Mom and Dad. Look closely, but don't comment on the seam! :)

This one was taken in a little alley near our hostel. It was so cute! As you can tell, it was raining when we started out our adventure throughout Cork this morning, but it cleared soon. However, it remained COLD throughout the day! After exploring some more of Cork and a short lunch at McDonald's (They charge you for ketchup here. And there are no free refills. And they rarely give you ice. American McDonald's are way better!), we decided to make our way to Saint Finbar's Cathedral.
This is the front of the cathedral. It's beautiful, but...
The back was even more beautiful!! Look at the green grass! Isn't it great? The grounds around the cathedral were something all by themselves. They house a small cemetery and numerous grave markers for people who did great things for the betterment of the church. We arrived right before mass was starting, so we decided to enjoy the service with many of the local Cork residents. A baby was baptized during the service, and it was a really beautiful thing to watch! The whole service was just really inspiring. Plus, the inside of the cathedral was just as beautiful as the outside!
Here's a view of the back of the church. (These were all taken post service, of course!)


And here's the front. It was so magnificent!!


The ceilings and the stained glass windows were definitely my favorite. I'm so glad we decided to go there!

After mass and some more wandering through Cork, Emily and I decided to catch a bus to Blackrock, Ireland, in order to see the Blackrock Castle! After a bit of confusion as to where the bus station was, we finally found it and managed to catch our bus just fine. I sort of fell asleep on the bus, and I wasn't really paying attention, though. The bus stopped once. Then twice. Then the third time. Then the fourth time. And finally a fifth time. All the while, this cute little Irish man behind us kept saying "Blackrock" in an equally cute little Irish accent, but we didn't know what he was talking about. It turns out that he was trying to tell us that each stop was for Blackrock and we should be getting off. By the time we realized what was going on, we had missed all of our stops, so this man with 500 piercings told us that we should get off at the next stop and walk back to the river and follow it to the castle. We did as this strange man informed us, and we walked.. and we walked.. and we walked.. We followed the river until FINALLY we found the castle! It looks like a pretty cool place, right? Well, it's not. They've made the castle into an observatory, and it was realllllly boring. Let's just say that the outside is way better than the inside. Still, we got some nice pictures out of it, and we got some experience with the bus system, which is good because we'll be using it again tomorrow when we travel to BLARNEY!! We're going to the Blarney Castle and kissing the Blarney Stone! I'm positive that Blarney Castle will be much better than Blackrock, but still, I have to give Blackrock some credit; it's really fun to say "Blackrock" in an Irish accent, but saying "Blarney" just isn't quite as fun.

I really love Ireland. It's so beautiful, and the people are so nice. However, I've noticed a few things about the Irish so far. For one, they honk for no reason, and it's scary! They also have confusing pedestrian crossings, and you constantly feel like you're about to be hit by a car. Sometimes it's hard to comprehend their English. They also run EVERYWHERE. They're really physically fit. That's nice and all, but they do so by wearing very thin clothing, and when it's freezing outside, I don't see how that's good for you!

Anyway, since I didn't sleep any last night, I should be hitting the hay soon. Emily and I are waking up early to head to Blarney! Our plans for Tuesday are still being worked out, but we have made a bit more progress with the London plans... we're attending WICKED in London on Wednesday afternoon!!! Thanks to Emily for finding cheap tickets! I'm so excited! Anyway, I'm going to bed for real now (with my 6 male roomies and Emily -- haha!). Goodnight!

...and made our great escape.