there's whiskey in the jar

ireland....what's not to love? rolling hills, castles, sheep, guinness, jameson, and cute accents. this past weekend was an absolute blast.
wendy, chris, grace, taylor and i all trekked our way on ryan air over to the emerald isle with relative success - well, except for the fact that i bought a bus ticket not for 2:30pm, but for 2:30am. Luckily, in a fit of european niceness, the bus driver let me on anyway. i seriously owe that man.
our flight was on time, which meant that we got to hear the signature ryan air trumpet call followed by "you're arrived on another on-time flight with ryan air!" it was rather funny, but not as funny as us miming britney spears, katy perry, and tommy tutone for all to see. on the flight grace also tried desperately to explain to us an 80s movie she'd seen in which an alien is sent to earth to impregnate a female and rule the species, but he has no penis so they give him a vibrator.
at this point we stopped listening, and told her that she had most likely been watching alien porn. if such a thing exists.
we arrived at our bed and breakfast, Sandy Hills, to freshly baked scones and the kindest woman any of us has ever met. her name is mary, and she was our hostess for the weekend. not only were there fresh scones and tea waiting, she also invited us into her sitting room in front of the fire to watch television. the house was just lovely - heaven, actually. i didn't want to leave. our room was a little chilly, but that just meant it was time for a cuddle puddle in wendy's bed!! cuddle puddles, by the way, rock.
morning brought a fresh breakfast of eggs, biscuits, homemade jam, tea, and fresh fruit. we trotted off to dublin for the day and went to see the oldest book in the world (not on display, so we saw an 'artistic copy'. psh) at trinity college. honestly i think we were all more impressed by the library - we're talking beauty and the beast here. everyone's jaws just dropped when we saw it.
after lunch at a little cafe, we hit up grafton street for some shopping. i got myself a claddaugh, which is a traditional irish ring that you wear facing one way to show that you're single and another to show that you're taken. it's been switching around quite a bit. we then tried and failed to find the guinness brewery, were sucessful in finding the jameson distillery, ran out of time for a tour, and took a tram to the Gin Palace, where i ordered my first official "pint". ha. yay.
eventually we found ourselves in a cab and heading off to a kareoke bar, which actually provided private rooms for everyone so as to avoid public embarassment.
it was freaking hilarious. we tackled such hits as achey breaky heart (seriously, you should listen to the lyrics sometime), that don't impress me much, i like big butts, and a full group collaboration of "summer nights". that had to have been the crowning moment.
we then proceeded on to our musical pub crawl, which is really just an excuse to drink and listen to awesome music. i also got mooned by a few irish boys in the bar due to the rugby match that was going on (irland v. france. the irish get quite excited when they do well...) it was a positive experience. haha.
sunday our saint of a hostess decided that it was too much of a shame for us not to see the countryside because of our lack of car, so she drove us all over the coast for the whole day. it was rather snowy so it wasn't as green as i was hoping, but it was BEAUTIFUL.
i mean, we're talking the ireland of the movies here. rolling hills and mountains, sheep, seaside towns, and quaint pubs where you can order fish and chips. i got some fantastic pictures.
we made it back to the airport with little issue, but of course there was a discrepency with the passenger list which resulted, upon landing, in us having about ten minutes to get across the runway, through customs, through the airport, and down a street to catch our bus to lux city.
did we do it?
hells yeah.
i didn't get back until 1am (and had zero cash left) and by the time i got to bed at 3 i was down to a little less than 4 hours of sleep for my frankenstein in-class essay today.
that, admittedly, was rather unpleasant.
at any rate, i'm home safe and sound, and off to amsterdam on wednesday for my mini-field study tour. fast times and good jazz music awaits.
love,
me