IRELAND

We have successfully made it to Ireland despite battling NYC traffic with wonky directions, waiting in JFK as our flight kept getting delayed and the 6 hour ride on over here – all of which really weren’t that bad. All that really matters is that we made it here and it’s awesome.

So to start, when we finally made it to JFK, checking baggage and security was a breeze so we went to scope out some food to satisfy our shrinking stomachs (even though we will soon need to get used to that feeling). We decided to eat at some café restaurant thing that looked like it had potential. Turns out they didn’t have the flatbread pizza I wanted, oh well, salad it is – which was probably the last time I will eat raw vegetables for the next 5 weeks. Now to provide a little humor to this, I am going to include a picture of our dear friend, Holly, on the day of our departure to Ireland. I had been talking with Kayla the night before about how I wanted to bring my flannel shirt along but did not because ‘there’s nothing more American than a flannel shirt’. Well, in comes Holly Sunday afternoon dressed in a flannel shirt. I am including a picture below (which I am sure she will reprimand me for) due to the continual jokes she hasprovided with us throughout the course of the night. Kayla’s father said that she looked like a corn farmer…you can decide for yourselves. :)



Now that I have undoubtedly given Holly something to get me back for, I will continue with our trip – summarized version. Turns out the plane that we were supposed to take to Dublin was having a hydraulics problem, which by the way it had been having for days. DAYS, really? Anyway, after the captain giving us an hourly play by play of the progress we ended up with a 4.5 hour delay, free food vouchers, an endless game of war and several stages of deliriousness. After finally boarding and taking off at 1:30 am (supposed to have departed at 9:10pm), movies, food and sleep commenced and we were landing in Dublin before we knew it – as crazy as that still seems.

It was a good thing that Kelly (who had a flight out of Philly) was also delayed by basically the same amount as us and prevented Mary (who we are staying with for the duration of this first week) from having to come early to get Kelly then wait for us for hours. So it actually all turned out fine, just an overall long trip, which in all honesty didn’t seem too too long. From the airport we drove to Mary’s farm (in Wicklow) which is completely awesome. We were fed (I love Irish food…) and then hopped right back in the car to go to Glendalough (pronounced glen – da – loch) which is this awesome old monastic settlement in a GORGEOUS valley. Pictures are included below, but it was really cool and beautiful. There were a bunch of walking paths stemming from the main ‘settlement’ part that went towards the valley. From there Mary took us to the remains of a castle that was build and subsequently burned/torn down post-shooting of the Mel Gibson movie ‘Braveheart’. It was a gorgeous view and it was cool walking around the ‘ruins’.


On da planeee!


Arriving in Dublin! I think this is Howth.


Glendalough




Being us. Me, Kayla, Holly, Mary and Kelly (left to right)


Still in Glendalough - the valley



For dinner that night we had a traditional Irish breakfast (yes I ate everything – go me) and it was really good. So much food. Clearly the lack of food isn’t going to kick in until after this week.

On our second day here we went to Arklow and hung out and chatted with a bunch of awesome people, scaled rocks and visited where Bally Kissangel was filmed – an Irish program that apparently the Furman family used to watch. Holly was a bit excited. True to Ireland weather, we got rained on but we were entirely OK with it, probably because it’s Ireland…


The gang and some of Mary's family...on a forklift tractor thing


THE BEACH


Holly and I :)


Mary's farm land. So awesome.

We took a walk around the farm and hung out for a bit – trying to recover from some jet lag, which I’m definitely feeling, but we ended up not going to sleep till 5am and woke up at 12pm - problems. Later in the day Holly, Kayla, Kelly and I took a bus to Dublin to stay the night – we are going to take a trip to western Ireland Thursday/Friday! YAY! So excited. So the next blog will about that trip for sure.

Fun Fact: The word savage means awesome – we just watched Pocahontas and it’s messing with my head.

*Disclaimer* I will only be posting a fraction of the pictures here...hopefully significantly more on Facebook. So check there from time to time