Irish Thanksgiving

Ireland has been my favorite trip! I absolutely loved it! I am so glad we waited until towards the end of our time here and that everyone went. It was so nice to be together when we were all missing our families on Thanksgiving. When we got to the airport we were not even sure if we were going to be able to go :( It was so cloudy in Frankfurt and all of the flights were getting canceled and delayed. We had to take a shuttle there, so we were at the airport for about 3 hours before our flight left. We had looked up other flights in case ours was going out and it was not looking good. We were so lucky! The only flight that ended up leaving that night was our flight.

We spent our first two nights in a bed and breakfast; totally worth it!! It was so nice and the owners were so friendly. I loved having a comfy bed to sleep in and a full Irish breakfast in the morning. Our first night in Dublin we went to Temple Bar. It isn't just one bar, its a whole area full of bars and shops. Our cab driver told us to check out Oliver St. John Gogarty's bar. Well, glad he did because it became our second home while in Dublin. There was a live Irish band; it was so fun! Had some beers, tried to jig, and met lots of people. We wandered to another bar too and were pretty much the only people in there. It was a really fun night with the girls.

Our Bed and Breakfast:
The Griffith House

Oliver St. John Gogarty's

The Irish Band

Celebrating our first night in Dublin
at Oliver St. John Gogarty's

It was so great to wake up to a big Thanksgiving breakfast. We went back up to bed afterwords and slept some more and laid in bed watching English TV! I can't believe I had gone almost 4 months with no TV. So we took advantage of that and our comfy beds and hung out in bed for Thanksgiving. We finally wandered out into the city around 3:30 and did some shopping and got some food....at Gogarty's :) They had amazing fish and chips! We found an internet cafe to Skype home and talk to all our families for Thanksgiving. It was so weird not being home with everyone. I was really glad that the cafe had the cameras and Skype hooked up though, it was so nice to see everyone! We were all a little sad leaving after calling home, so we just went back home and hung out at the bed and breakfast for our last night there.
We left right after breakfast Friday morning and took a train to Cork. We got there around 11 and checked into our hostel to drop off our bags. We then caught a bus us to Blarney. Crazy story-- On the bus ride to Blarney, there were a lot of people our age sitting in the back of the bus with us. We were eating our lunch, but start hearing them talk about the Tigers and Red Wings, and were kind of just listening in. One guy starts talking about his buddy from Grand Rapids, when another says something about Western, we all imediately turn our heads around and asked where they were from. One was from Western, another from Albion I think, but all were from around Michigan; it was so weird! The girl across from me leans over and looks at me and asks 'do yo know Megan Sweany?' HA! It was so weird! She played travel softball with her and she had said my dad was her coach. She said when she saw me she thought it was Moe. What a small world, couldn't tell you how many times things like that have happened-this was definiately the weirdest though.

Anyways, we headed to the Blarney Castle. It was really pretty. We walked through the castle up to the Blarney Stone. The stairways and hallways were SO small! There were times I thought I was going to have to turn sideways to get my shoulders through! I made it all the way up and KISSED THE BLARNEY STONE :) It was nothing like I was expecting. You had to lay down and bend backwards with your head hanging down in front of a wall and you just kissed the bottom part of this wall. We walked the grounds of the castle for awhile and then caught a bus back to Cork.

In front of the Blarney Castle

Walking up to kiss the Blarney Stone

We were back in time for dinner and found another fish and chips place. It wasn't as good as Gogarty's though. After dinner we walked all through the city. There was lots of shopping strips. It was so pretty at night with everything lit up and some stores even had Christmas music playing outside of their stores. We ended up going up to bed after shopping. We were getting up early to go to Kinsale, Ireland. We wanted to go and see the coast and one of the girls' dad and brother had been to Kinsale for golfing and really liked it, so we headed that way. We got there really early and there wasn't much open yet, so we just walked along the coast and played by the water for a while. Once stores started to open, we headed back towards town and went through some little shops. We didn't stay in Kinsale for very long. We got there about 10am and caught the 12:15 bus back. There wasn't a whole lot to do there though, so I was glad to get back to the bus.

Kinsale, Ireland

We hadn't made arrangements ahead of time for Saturday night, because we didn't know where we would be at, so Friday we all decided we wanted to go back to Dublin. We got online at the hostel to find a place to stay and we had such a hard time finding anything! We all had to split up and basically take whatever there was. Carolyn, Courtney, and I ended up staying at the Shining Hostel. The name kind of creeped me out at first. So, we get back into Dublin and split up to find our hostels. Ours was nice and close to the city center. But, this place was quite and experience in itself! Y0u had to go outside to get up to your room, then we walk into the room, and it was unbelievable how many bunk beds fit in that room!! I think I counted 20 beds, oh, and ONE bathroom for everyone, which had one toilet, one sink, and two showers with glass doors. It was so weird! Of course, I was the lucky one with the bed right next to the bathroom door too, so I heard that door opening all night/morning.

Our 20 bed hostel room
The picture does not do justice, you can only see like 6 beds here

We all had to spend our last night in Ireland at Gogarty's again! This time we sat nice and close to the band. It was another wonderful night! We had developed a reputation by this time, and the band would call out to us 'Michigan Girls' throughout the night.

Last night at Gogary's

Trinity College

Sunday our flight didn't leave until 6:30pm, so during the day we got some lunch, visited Trinity College, and did some more shopping. The trip home was what we were all dreading. We arrived at Frankfurt at 10:30pm, but there wasn't a shuttle to Heidelberg until 12:50am. We had to spend forever at the airport waiting for the 2 hour shuttle ride home. We didn't get back to the apartment until 3:30am. I was so happy I had taken the day off on Monday. We are allowed to miss 3 days, and I had only missed 2, so I stayed home and caught up on some sleep and some school work. I did miss my last faculty meeting though, and they had called all of the student teachers up and Janice (my mentor) had huge bouquets for me and Megan. They were so beautiful.
This week got pretty crazy trying to finish up stuff for WMU and finishing up some lessons, but I made it. Friday we went down the road for the tree lighting ceremony. At 5pm they lit all of the lights along the roads and on the tree and such. There was a stage where school kids and some other performers sang Christmas music. There were also lots of tents selling things. It was a pretty big event for everyone. When I got home I started packing up some things.
It is so weird that I will be home in 8 days! This last week is going to fly by! I already have so many things planned to do and things I need to get done. Today I am heading downtown to the Christmas markets. I haven't been yet, so I'm not sure what to expect. I know there are going to be lots of booths set up with different foods and gluvine (a hot wine) and I think there are little shops too selling things. I will have to let you know what it is all about.

Can't wait to see you all so soon!!
Love, Amy