Sheep World.

HELLO friends. I am bad at blogging bla bla bla…. I WAS IN IRELAND!

December was a great GREAT month for me. My dad came and visited me for Christmas which was really the best present ever. I really missed my family around thanksgiving, so it was so nice that I got to see my dad. We had so much fun running around St. Pete. I showed him many of the cool sights and also showed him aspects of my life here, for example: my walk to school, my doctor’s office and my favorite mall. We had our Christmas meal at a Montana/Australian themed steak house that only played sting videos. Perfect Christmas. It was such a great time.

After my dad left, I had exactly a DAY to chill in St. Pete before I left on my adventure to Ireland. This involved me taking the bus to Tallin, Estonia and then waiting six hours to take the plane to Dublin. I didn’t take a plane directly from St. Pete because EU countries have cheaper airfare between them, so I took a bus 7 hours to the nearest EU major city and saved myself a couple hundred dollars. I also dramatically increased my travel time, so I’m still undecided about my method.

ANYWAYS. I arrived in Dublin and was the very last person off the plane and through security which scared my friend Jack. How funny. I immediately noticed that cars drive on the WRONG side of the road and almost got ran over 122 times. It is also funny because I sit in what would have been the driver’s side in the US, but there is no steering wheel. It is very strange.

The first few days we stayed at my friend’s aunt’s house in Dublin. It was really nice, and even though it seems like every Irish person I met HATES Dublin, I thought it was a very cool place. We visited a large Gaelic sports only stadium and it was MASSIVE. Dublin also has the Guinness Brewery  which was really cool to go to even though I do not care about beer or drinking really. It was really an impressive place and I liked looking at all the facts and history of Guinness. Also I bought some FABULOUS socks with Tookie the Toucan on them. They have googly eyes and everything.

FISH FISH!

NYE was also in Dublin. It was really a fabulous evening. In Ireland they have these interesting alcohol drinks that I like. They are kind of like what we would call ‘wine coolers’ in the US, but they are very different and they sell them EVERYWHERE. So I was enjoying those, and also was enjoying the fact that we met a school of fish and a very talkative polar bear on the way to the massive club party. They must have been dressed up for a play or something, but they were cool. The club venue place where the party was held was intense. It was three stories high, and the sinks in the bathrooms on the upper floors looked out on the dance floor below which was cool. We also got selected to be VIP probably because I was wearing my toucan socks and a puffball in my head, which meant that we could go to the top floor which had less people and scantily clad waitresses. Very nice. On the way home we had a fabulous cab driver who sang Irish songs and made jokes about Detroit. Very nice. The next day we went to NEWGRANGE which is a prehistoric house/building that is totally older then the pyramids. I looked up that it is estimated to be from 3200BC which is the oldest human built thing I have ever seen. It was really cool because it was built with perfect precision and has never leaked or let in any light, except once a year during Summer Solstice. That day was also funny because it was rainy and cold, and jack forgot a coat. He was so miserable. Also Gary sat on a bird bathroom, which was equally as hilarious to me. Also that day I saw the best rainbow ever, I am still freaking out about it.

NEWGRANGE

I was not cold at all and Jack had not been rained on at all

I did so many cool things in Ireland that it is hard to pick out the important ones to talk about. We went to the CLIFFS OF MOHER which are LEGENDARY. Unfortunately we went on one of the windiest days ever which meant there was a legitimate possibility of blowing off the cliffs. There are stairs along the sides, and I literally got blown up the stairs, so we decided not to go on the part of the cliffs that the direction of the wind was blowing off of. It was a little scary. The wind also unbuttoned my coat

quick pic on the ride up to the cliffs

and almost blew away my stuffed animal sheep that Jack bought me. I named her WINDY. Speaking of sheep, there were some sheep chillin by the edge of the cliff but they did not even care that the wind was blowing the water from below onto their face. Irish sheep are tough apparently. But the Cliffs where absolutely gorgeous. The drive to the cliffs was equally as beautiful, and the water was so angry because of the wind. It was impressive. After the cliffs, we found a cave that was supposedly popular and interesting, and we decided to go in. At first we were annoyed because our tour guide looked like he was 15 and was dressed like a slob and not a SPELUNKER. But he knew his stuff. Also this cave has the #3 longest stalactite in the world and that was impressive.

For real though, everything in Ireland is beautiful. We did a lot of driving, and I did not get bored looking out the window. Everyone kept telling me (when I understood what they were saying) that it was the WORST time to visit Ireland, but even with the rain and greyness, everything was so beautiful. The hills were green and filled with happy sheep. The water looked so nice and

OCTAGON FORMATION

often menacing as well. Me ears popped every five seconds because Ireland is the land of hills. Jack took me on top of the highest hill around and the view was amazing (it is the first picture and the last one). There was also a really old structure up there that we broke into and climbed on top of. I also climbed when we went to Giant’s Causeway which was a weird naturally occurring formation of octagons stacked on top of each other by the water. According to LEGEND, a giant actually was throwing rocks around and did this, but it is really according to SCIENCE that this happened. That was so fun, and I kept thinking how much fun my mom would have climbing on those octagons. The wind was also intense that day too, which was scary because you could have fallen down hundreds of rock octagons and it would not have been fun. Thankfully, I did not get blown off or sucked into the water.

Groovin on octagons.

So many other interesting things happened in Ireland that I liked. We can talk about it. Everyone should go. Correction, everyone should go with my friend Jack because he was such a fabulous tour guide. He also introduced me to UK Celebrity Big Brother which has taken over my life pretty much. I may or may not have applied even though I am not a citizen of the UK… WAAAAAAA Seeee you soon! I plan to write again more often. I plan to do an entry ENTIRELY about how cold it is here. FOR REAL.

I LIKE IRELAND