the land of lucky charms...

First I must apologize for taking such a long break from blogging. Spring break took a lot out of me and I just haven't found time. But I am slowly and surely catching up...

I call it the land of lucky charms because usually when I think of Ireland, I think of the Lucky Charms box. Leprechauns and rainbows and perhaps a pot of gold. Happily I can tell you that Ireland hesitantly embraces this American view of its culture. I did see several people dressed up in leprechaun outfits while I was there. They were usually on the sidewalks, ready for you to take a picture with them, after -of course- you paid them with some of your good old gold...


Here in Bangor, we have a three week spring break. Now this three week spring break could be spent in any way you choose. However, the first week is filled with a trip across the water to the island of Ireland. Our entire American student group took a week long trip to visit the two most popular cities - Dublin and Galway. 


There are 34 students who came to Bangor through Central College. We all live apart from each other while we are here. We rarely get to see everyone together, unless we are at our Welsh History and Culture class, once a week. You can imagine that our trip together to Ireland was a nice way to get together for a whole week. 

the whole group...

We went all over the place. It was wonderful. Typically Ireland is rainy and cloudy, similar to the rest of it's UK counterparts. But we were lucky enough to see the sun during more than half of the week. We spent our time doing loads of things. The local Irish pubs were number one on our list. Mainly, Temple Bar. Almost all of the pubs in Ireland have live music playing. In the band are the typical members, a guitar, accordian, and percussion instrument of some kind. The bands were my absolute favorite parts of the nightlife in Ireland. There was music playing everywhere, in and outside of the pubs. On the streets, in the alleys, and from most of the mouths of the Irish men came songs of cheer. 

One day we spent taking a ferry to the Aran Islands. The day was cool and crisp with the sun shining down on us. This is not like Ireland at all. Rain comes and rain stays for days, months, sometimes forever it seems like. But for us we got our first sun-burns in the rainiest area in the UK. Yay us! The day was full of riding bikes around the island and being a part of our own little adventure. We went to a beach and danced in the ocean and laid down by cliffs that were plummeting towards the crashing waves of the ocean 

at the aran island cliffs...

at the beach on the aran islands...
with Elizabeth and Regan...

The Aran Islands were probably my favorite place in Ireland, except in a very very close second was the Cliffs of Moher. We took a long bus ride to the Cliffs of Moher. If you have ever seen the movie The Princess Bride, then you might remember the Cliffs of Insanity and how "inconceivable" they were. Well my friend Jade and I agreed that the Cliffs were inconceivable and in honor of the great movie we declared that they were inconceivable a minimum of 64 times while we were walking on them. The weather at the Cliffs of Moher was absolutely amazing again. It made the experience so much better. The Cliffs were so intensely huge, I don't know quite how to explain them. So here is a picture that barely captures the mass of these inconceivable Cliffs...

The last stop that I am going to mention in our trip to Ireland is the trip to the Guinness Factory. It was more like a museum/factory. It was great. It was seven floors that walked you through the process of the production of Guinness beer. It was really interesting. I would like to say that I tried my first Guinness, fresh brewed straight from the factory. The bartender even put a clover on top. It was my lucky Guinness. 

mmhmm...

can you see the clover?
look closely...

Sad to say that I could not finish the thick Guinness. One of the very kind male friends took the heavy burden of finishing my drink for me. I don't think I could handle the whole pint. Well I tried to keep it short and straight to the point, and I hope that you enjoyed my overview of Ireland. I would strongly recommend that you visit Ireland because it was one of the most magical places I have ever been to.