I haven't been able to write in forever because my internet at home has been freezing constantly so I figured I would write on my lunch break today and share some of my adventures.
Two weekends ago was a holiday weekend and we made our way to the west coast of Ireland on a day tour on Saturday and to Newgrange and the Hills of Tara on Monday. Monday was a bank holiday - don't know what that means but I like it:)
The trips were amazing: Christine, Aaron and I boarded a train early on Saturday morning (6am) and traveled to the west coast which only takes about 2 hours. I of course slept most of the journey as I was exhausted from the previous two days of fun...our company had a social event the previous Thursday night at Samsara which had turned into a whole night of dancing and fun. Our first stop was to Bunratty Castle, which was where one of the kings of the 4 provences of Ireland had lived previous to England taking rule over Ireland. It was intriguing the way they had designed the castle around avoiding people from being able to take over the castle. There were trap doors, and long tall, uneven staircases, port holes for spying and lots of other amazing things designed to keep unwanted visitors out. They had the original village still surrounding the castle and you could walk into the little thatched roof houses where the space was designed for protection and efficiency including bedrooms on 2nd floors with no stairs and ladders that could be pulled up for when people were sleeping. There was also roosters walking around area and one of them began to pose for me which was quite hilarious.
We then headed to a little village for lunch and shopping and then made our way to the Cliffs Of Moher, which would have been beautiful except that the mist had kicked into full gear so visibility was only about 10 - 20 feet. I did get one pic which was funny because my camera apparently had better vision than I did, and I didn't see the details until I downloaded the picture. So I made the best of the situation and took pictures of my new friend the cow:)
See the haze!!!
We then went along the west coast, where the ocean is lined with beautiful slate rock and through the villages, all quaint and cozy and headed up to Galway, where we then took a train back to Dublin.
Quite the experience including my first real train ride.
Sunday night, we found a bar that shows US football so a bunch of us went there to watch the games and we tried to go see Deep Dish play right near City Centre where we are staying, but it was sold out...so sad.
Monday we took a historical bus tour to the Hills of Tara and Newgrange, both historical landmarks. They are both North of Dublin approximately 1 hour and the tour guide was extremely knowledgable on the History of Ireland and walked from Neolithic Times to Present day History of Ireland lesson which was quite remarkable. Newgrange was my favorite as it was a megalithic passage tomb built in approximately 3200 BC and is considered as important as the Seven Wonders of the World and is actually a tomb built during the megalithic period where on the winter solstice, the sun atually shines directly into the chamber of this deep cave-like structure.
The rest of my off work time has been focused on apartment hunting, which is a journey all in itself. I viewed almost 14 apts in the last 2 weeks, was about to give up hope as most of them were dingy and old and extremely overpriced for what you would get, but I finally found an amazing place on Tuesday. It is in Blackrock, two blocks from the sea, 2 bedrooms, 2 bath, fully furnished, next to the quaint village area and easy enough to get to work and to the City Centre on the Dart(train) or by bus. I am so excited and will hopefully move in next week as I am heading to London this weekend to visit Bobby in Notting Hill for my birthday weekend.
I can't wait to go on my 1st European weekend. It's great too because the London Jazz Festival is this weekend:) More to come! xoxo!
to ME!!!! haha!
