El Camino De Santiago: My Thoughts of Our 2 Day Excursion

Photo cred: Mildred
View from Playground in Portomartín

On Thursday, April 21st, we began our journey to the outer banks. Just kidding we weren't going to North Carolina, we were heading to O Cebreiro. It was about a two hour bus ride or so and we then were shown a few places there, that I didn't find all too important. One of them was one of the homes that housed people and animals and Morgue and I joked around about the logicalness of these homes. Such as the house was way too big. Think of all the wood they would need to heat that house since it was so big! Even with the animal heat they would still need a shit ton of fire wood. After Paula talked/toured us around O Cebreiro for awhile, we were released to walk around or have some coffee. So Morgana, Steph and I went to a different cafe from all the rest of them because there wasn't room for us in the cafe. We ended up in a cafe with only us and eventually a woman from Ohio came in as well.
This woman from Ohio was doing the Camino and had messed up her knee or leg while walking. I think she said it was fractured. Well, she wasn't ready to give up so after taking a break, she began biking the Camino instead. We had a lovely time chatting with her and helped her out a little since she couldn't speak all that much Spanish, she just knew enough to get by with ordering food really. After we were done drinking our drinks (obviously I had a cola cao), we decided to walk the Camino backwards since we were given about 3 hours or so at this town before we were moving on. Well it started sprinkling while we were walking so the rest of the group that had stayed together decided we were leaving early and we didn't get that memo. Mind you, I could've gotten that memo but I'm not really glued to my phone so I didn't. We walked for about an hour before making our way back to the bus to find that everyone had been looking for us for about an hour. Let's talk about awkward....

Photo Cred: Morgana
O Cebreiro

Photo Cred: Mildred
O Cebreiro

Back on the bus we headed to a different location where we began our walk for the day. I'm not really sure how far we walked, but it was a rather long walk. We did a lot of singing, definitely indulging in our inner Disney selves.

Photo Cred: Mildred

We walked to the above picture location that day, and that was as far as we walked. We then took a bus to Portomartín where we stayed the night in an Albergue. Steph and I went exploring the town, that she had already been in when she did the Camino in January. We found a playground and hung out there, obviously swinging since that is my thing for playgrounds. In Portomartín, almost all the railing that we saw had a shell, the symbol of the Camino. Actually a lot of places had these shells on their railings.

Photo Cred: Mildred
Shell Railings

The next day we did more walking than the first, starting out in Portomartín and going all the way to I have no clue, possibly to Ventas de Narón since the schedule says that but I'm really not sure because I was under the impression we walked farther than was actually planned since we wanted to get the total kilometers of planned walking in since it was going to rain later that day. I'm not sure though. Once we met up with the bus again, the driver took us down a nice windy road trying to make us all car sick to Castillo de Pambre. We also went to a church, La Iglesia Santiagouista de Vilar de Donas, while we were on the bus at some point during the day. Surprise, Spain's stonemasons also put their faces on the building that they build just like in Ireland. Anyhoo, the castle was closed to the public but it had this nooks that we could peak into to see the inside.

Photo Cred: Mildred
Castillo de Pambre

Photo Cred: Mildred
Castillo de Pambre

And then once we were done there, we went to a town called Melide for lunch. We were going to go somewhere to picnic but it had started raining, also Paula our guide didn't realize that we all had already eaten our sack lunches on the bus whenever we were there we were just munching on it. So we stopped in Melide and had some pulpo (octupus). I like pulpo but the sucky thingys have a real weird texture. Once we were done in Melide, we walked a little ways to Boente and then bussed the rest of the way to Santiago where Paula had us walk the route the pilgrims walk to get to the Catedral. So yeah that was the Camino, and then I went home to find that I didn't have any clean towels to use so I got stuck with air drying! (for a week because I didn't ask for one until I got my laundry back since I thought it was just not clean yet).

In comparison to the last Camino I did, I would say this really didn't feel like the Camino at all. We were just on a really long walk. We did see more pilgrims than I did the last time I did the Camino, and I think visiting with the pilgrims and sharing stories is a huge part of the Camino that I missed out on the first time around. I definitely think we should not have done the Camino in January when we did it last year for class because that was just miserable. This time around we had fun without worrying about the rain and even when it did rain a little it wasn't all that bad. The rain was a welcome relief to the heat of the sun. The one good thing about doing the Camino in January was that I didn't get sunburned of course.

Life Update: Bright, Shiny Globe in the Sky

On Sunday, April 17th, we were surprised to find that we had a sunny day! Finally after some crappy rainy days we had the perfect opportunity to aprovechar the mountain. So with that bright, shiny globe in the sky we began our journey upward around 4pm. The climb wasn't actually that bad, it took maybe an hour to get there. It didn't seem like it took very long, but the view made it seem like we were forever away from Santiago.

Photo Cred: Mary's Phone by stranger
Monte Pedroso

Photo Cred: Mary
Monte Pedroso

Photo Cred: Mary
Monte Pedroso

Photo Cred: Mildred's crappy phone
Monte Pedroso 

Photo Cred: Mildred's crappy phone
Monte Pedroso

We just sat at the top of the mountain and stared down at Santiago for awhile, enjoying the nice vitamin D that we were soaking in from that bright shiny globe in the sky. Before heading back dow, where we walked through a cute park and then went for froyo, yes I had froyo two days in a row and I regret nothing.

On Monday, April 18th, we celebrated one of our teacher's birthdays by surprising her with a cake. Technically we bought two halves because there wasn't any full cakes available and we couldn't decide on a flavor for anyone. Also, red velvet is very different from chocolate cake. I don't care what you have to say about that, there is a huge difference.

Photo Cred: Mary
Red Velvet Cake with Cheesecake frosting
Some random chocolate cake

Photo Cred: Mary
Our class and María, our teacher

My internship got out early on Monday because not enough people had read the book for this week so they moved the book back to next week, meaning I don't have to read any more book summaries because I did it for this week. Since it got out early, I aprovachar'd the lovely weather and went and watched Melisa and Morgan hammock while I sat on the ground with Steph. We had a grand old time and then Melisa bought me froyo (third day in a row for froyo) since I handed her her purse.

Tuesday was my last day of volunteering and I was in a cranky mood that day. It seemed everyone was though, since class was a cranky experience and everyone at volunteer was cranky too. I had to have someone that actually spoke Gallego in my group this time since no one wanted to listen to the girl that was essentially mute and deaf since she understood nothing they said and couldn't be understood either. One of them told me they had to use the bathroom and was really frustrated when I didn't understand what they were saying until the other worker in the group said it in Spanish so I understood. I just was trying to pass a ball with them, which involves no verbal communication normally but Tuesday they all wanted verbal communication instead of nonverbal.

Wednesday, we thanked Maria for calling us adults and treating us as such. She seemed slightly upset with us for that and started talking to us about how we were adults and just because we couldn't speak Spanish fluently didn't mean we were stupid. We actually had a really long conversation about the fact that we are adults. I think she understands how we feel really well since she's lived in the United States before and I'm sure people treated her like she was a young child because of her verbal skills.

We had a short week, just Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday since the last two days of the week were our Camino days, which will be talked about in the next blog post! 

Life Update: Huelgas

This last week was an exciting week I would say. It was my second to last day at volunteering, where I had a marvelous time. It was my last Thursday and Friday of internship, just two more Mondays to go for that. It was also supposed to be my last full week of classes since this coming week we will be doing two days of the Camino de Santiago. We had to watch a gross film called "The Way" which was about the Camino. I'm sure the only way to make that film worse was if we had watched it in English so I actually understand everything that was going on. Who wants to watch movies at 4 in the afternoon that you don't get to choose and you can't eat while watching the movie right? Plus, who ever wants to be required to watch a movie.
Well, on Monday I hung out with Macka and Mary after internship. We went shopping at the cutest store that I would buy everything from if I could.

Photo Cred: Google Images
The cutest store 

In said store, they had a bunch of things you don't really need but are adorable. For example, there were mini shopping carts to hold pens and such (just just be a toy). There were mega huge erasers with cute sayings on them and some were shaped like gnomes, bears, all the cool things. I think my favorite thing they are selling there is a puzzle that's a red heart for couples therapy. I'm thinking about buying it just because of the hilarity of it. I absolutely love that this puzzle is a thing and its for "putting the pieces back together". 

Photo Cred: Google Images

While we were at this store, we started hearing about the Huelga. The students of our university had decided to hold a protest against the education system on Wednesday and Thursday. People can hold protests and demonstrations and such all the time if they want, all they have to do is inform the Xunta (their governmental people) or probably more likely inform the police so the police can be there and make sure everything is going smoothly. We were told we wouldn't be able to get into the building where our class was on Wednesday because protesters would be blocking the doors, sadly there was no protests just a bench that had been dragged in front of the door which was easily removed by someone else. So we had class on Wednesday, though we held out hope someone would come in and rescue us from class, telling us we weren't allowed to have class during a protest. Apparently this has happened in the past. Sadly we were not rescued. Our last class of the day though, the teacher that we would not have excepted this from, seemed disappointed that we were not out there experiencing this protest. We had a nice chat about it and it was decided that we would be missing class on Thursday to support the protesters, plus who wants to go to class. Instead of a full week of class, we skipped Thursday and the day was wonderful. 

Photo Cred: Google Images
The Huelga

We were expecting rain, but it was actually a nice day to just wander around until lunch. I greatly enjoyed not having class, especially Rosana's class since she's driving me insane. I'm not 5 in case y'all didn't know, she thinks we are all 5 or something. 

On Saturday, we were supposed to go to Ourense but it was cancelled because of bad weather for the 3rd weekend in a row. I mean the 1st weekend Steph and I were going to just go on our own, the second weekend Erasmus didn't have enough people signed up, and this weekend there was bad weather. Obviously the world doesn't want us to go to Ourense though. Hopefully next weekend we will get there! But yeah Life Update... yay!

Peeing of the Pants

Oh Saturday, how I needed you. First of all, on Friday we made our first hike that we didn't realize was going to end up being a hike on our journey to find Morgue a new fishing spot. We ended up at La Selva Negra and it was gorgeous.

Photo Cred: Mildred
La Selva Negra

Photo Cred: Mildred
La Selva Negra

We had a very peaceful walk and it was wonderful. Then we returned to our respective places, jk, we went and had a drink and chatted for a while before returning to our respective places. I did find that I look eefing amazing in black leather jackets, which has now made me want to buy one even more than I already did. Good thing I hate spending money or I would already have bought one before I decided how great I look in them. Friday night we also went out with the vermonter girls and I decided I am not a huge fan of them and don't really want to hang out with them ever again. Good thing they are invited to hang with us all the time right? It's really just because they like to act like they are cool, and like smoking weed and drinking to get drunk is cool. So I ended the night eating a Kebap with Steph who knows me so well that she always lets me eat my half first since I don't like germs and then I went home and watched Anastasia because ain't no one going to bed in a bad mood which those vermonters had left me in. 

The next day, I slept almost 11 hours, which I know was my depression biting me in the ass from last night's spike. I convinced myself I needed it though. I had lunch and then headed out for froyo and museo with the girls, Steph, Marge, Mary, and Vermonter Corina. Corina isn't bad, except when she starts trying to act cool or starts trying to play victim/start drama. So anyhoo we went and bought froyo and I was adventures and got frutas del bosque (forest fruit) jam like stuff put on my nata (creme yogurt) along with mango topping. It was quite delicious. Then we headed towards the Museo do Pobo Galego. It was all in Gallego so we didn't actually understand what the signs said, I mean we could've gotten the gist but I wasn't that committed. The museum was pretty cool and fun. 

Photo Cred: Mildred
Museo do Pobo Galego: The Stairs

So the museum had these great spiral staircases. You had three staircases to choose from at the bottom and then two of them just ended but one went all the way to the top. They also branched off into the different rooms of the museum. If you didn't choose the correct staircase though you couldn't get to the top.

Photo Cred: Mildred
Museo do Pobo Galego: The View

From the top you could see this amazing view of Santiago. You can see the construction being done on the cathedral too in the middle there. The tower with the box around it. Technically its rehabilitation but I like saying construction better. It was wonderful though. Then the museum also was part church. I called it just by seeing a hole in the wall that looked like one of those things that hold holy water before we even got near the church part, so I'd say I'm amazing at guessing. 

Photo Cred: Mildred
Museo do Pobo Galego 

Photo Cred: Mildred
Museo do Pobo Galego

Photo Cred: Mildred
Museo do Pobo Galego

I just really like ceilings and windows in case you hadn't figured that out yet. The arches in the church looked like they were arcos de medio punto which are Roman Arches because they looked like half a circle. You can see that in the first picture in this section here. I learned about arches in class this last week in case you can't tell. Then the ceiling, though hard to tell in the photo, had a different image in every square. So one of them was a star and another was a seashell. I'd assume all the images were important pieces of Santiago's history since the star and seashell are important stuff.

Once we were done with the museum and seeing cool things from back in the day, we headed to the park of mazes (I have no clue what its called but it has hedge mazes) to see Morgue and his hammock. 

Photo Cred: Mildred
Park of Mazes: Hammock spot view

So this is what we could see from our spot at the hammock. As you can see there are two walls of stone right at the front of the pictures. This is because between the two walls is a little stream. This is where I almost peed my pants came into play. I was just standing, chatting with my friends while a dad and his son, who was definitely a toddler, were kicking a soccer ball around. Well the dad had gone into the cafe at the top of the hill while his son chased the ball down the hill. He wasn't too concerned probably since we were watching that kid and had engaged the kid with the ball a few times. Well the kid decided it was a good idea to throw the ball over the first wall, into the little stream. He had been throwing the soccer ball over the fence at the top of the hill, so it wasn't super surprising and we just started dying of laughter. Morgue, being the kind soul that he is ran down and jumped the wall to get the ball out. That's about when the father came back to find this had happened, and went booking it down the hill. I'm not sure if he knew where his son was at first or not but he did veer off in the direction towards his son instead of where Morgue was so I'd assume he knew where he was before booking it down the hill. So Morgue threw the ball back to him and then they started making their way up the hill. Well the ball ended up being kicked back down the hill and the kid managed to throw it over the wall yet again, very sneakily this time since the dad was watching him closer now. So this time the dad jumped in and threw the ball back out, before he could jump back over the wall though the kid threw it back in. By this time, I was ready to pee my pants because I was laughing so hard at the little kid's antics. It was adorable and hilarious. Definitely devil child material. 

What a wonderful way to end our adventures of the day with a good hard laugh from a little kid who sure as heck knew what he was doing.

Life Update: Winding Down, Wanting More Time

This week marks the one month left of the semester. One month left of living with my sweetheart of a host mom. One month left of Santiago and enjoying the weather. One month before I begin my adventures alone. One month. 

I cannot tell you how sad I have been this week. I don't want to leave this place or leave my host mom. I could of course do without the classes, but I am going to miss my host mom and this place so much. It's really felt like home this past semester and I cannot believe the semester is drawing to a close. I'm ready to cry now just from being so close to the end of the semester, I cannot imagine how I feel when I have to actually say goodbye. Next semester being back at Loras is becoming more real and I'm absolutely dreading it. Class signup is coming, housing signup is coming, and all I want to do is not think about it. I don't want the reminders that I have to leave. I don't even want to plan my adventures alone because that means I have to admit I'm leaving soon. I also just got invited to have breakfast with President Collins this semester, so I'm so glad the school knows I'm out of the country. They really outta have a list of abroaders or something.... Anyhoo, I don't want the reminder I have to go back. I never thought Spain would gain just a major part of my heart in the time I've spent here, but boy did it grab my heart and I'm not sure its gonna let go. 

This week at my volunteer, I was reminded my time is drawing to a close when I was asked to talk in English with one of the ladies there since she knew English. While we were chatting, we both kept forgetting we were supposed to be talking in English and we kept switching back to Spanish. We had a hoot though and I realized, I have 2 more times going to my volunteer and I am going to miss playing games with the older adults and listening to them chat, pretending to understand, or actually understanding them. This lady was the only one I actually understand there. I also realized from our conversation just how accumulated to Spain I am, being able to follow a conversation and have a hard time staying in English. I can hold a conversation in Spanish, and that's a huge accomplishment for me. 

This week at my internship, I cannot say that I'm going to miss it. We talked about negative and positive feedback and how it affects people on Monday and then had a book discussion over a book I would definitely read in a future life (or just in the future). On Thursday we danced the thriller three times in a row and I must say I greatly have that dance down. I don't think I need anymore practice for that! Mary and I discussed pulling out the High School Musical dance moves for our final Thursday next week. We also watched some weird war movie, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, on Thursday and I was not impressed. On Friday we just sat around and watched people watch other people because they didn't want to work on their English worksheets. I am going to miss some of the people at internship, but I don't think I'll miss it greatly. 

Life Update: Vermont Rant

When I got back from Ireland, I found that I would be living with two boys from Vermont for the rest of the semester. My first impression of them was not in the least bit in their favor. I cannot stand an extremely mess bathroom, I don't use the bathroom that my siblings use at home because it grosses me out that much. Now I have the joy of sharing a bathroom with two boys, who pretty obviously have never shared a bathroom with a girl, or someone who likes the resemblance of clean before. In the last week, they have used the bar soap for showering instead of the intended purpose of washing hands (I wash my hands with that soap please keep it off the rest of your body). They have used my razor that I had hanging in the shower. They get water all over the floor, like huge puddles, and they are just a mess in general. The toilet seat doesn't get put back down, they dribble on the toilet seat too. They quite literally are driving me insane. Oh they also tried to walk in on me today while I was taking a shower. I forgot knocking doesn't exist in boy worlds.
However, I am an adult so I can handle this. I went out and bought another bar of soap so they could keep using the bar soap for showering. I took all my stuff out of the bathroom and put it in my room. I threw away the razor they used in case anyone was worried about that. I'm not looking to get an STD or anything, plus it was an old razor anyway. Hopefully I don't have a blood disease that was on my razor that they contracted from using my razor right? I wear shoes into the bathroom so I don't get soaking wet socks (sometimes I forget) and after this next week we will reevaluate whether or not we need to have a discussion on proper bathroom etiquette. They are just younguns so I'm giving them a second chance, and the benefit of the doubt. Dirty bathrooms are not part of my lifestyle though. So basically I'm being passive about this right now instead of addressing it up front. Can you blame me though? I don't even know what their names are and we only talked once in which we stated where we were from and that was it. I don't want to terrify them on the first week they were there.
I obviously need to rant about this because I just wrote a shit ton about that....lol....But yeah we have Vermont boys living with us for the rest of the semester. I think I move out before they do actually. They are high schoolers, aged 17, and seem like they are pretty much complete loners. They always seem to be back before me at night, and I rarely stay out late, and they never go out. Then again, they are 17 so they can't drink so that might defeat the purpose of going out for them? I have no clue. Maybe I'll be nice and suggest a few places to go to them, but I doubt I will at least for a while since we don't talk.

We also got French girls for the week. I didn't really see them at all, but the apartment was quite full. In fact, because the apartment is so full we ended up having 3 dinners. This is because the apartment has a dining room but we never use it, we always eat in the kitchen which has room for 4 to 5 people, really only 4 because 5 would be greatly pushing it. We could've all ate together though in the dining room. My host mum told me the other day though that she knew I was shy and that's why they had been doing dinner this way. She's literally the sweetest ever. This way she also gets someone to eat with because she wasn't home when the French girls and Vermont boys ate, but the reason she had dinner going that way is the sweetest.

I don't remember what else I was going to write in this weekly update.... it sat open on my computer for a week after writing it because I didn't have time to finish it and now I can't remember what I was going to add! so I suppose it'll just be my first impressions of the Vermont boys and nothing else....

Ireland Draws to a Close

Photo Cred: Probably the Kilkenny website/app
Kilkenny Castle

On our final day of travel before we returned to Dublin, we went to Kilkenny Castle. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the Castle because have to preserve the Victorian Aged Castle and all the art work, so if you want pictures you can download the Kilkenny Castle app that they have at their website. Apparently it gives you all sorts of cool information too. So we got to go on a tour of that, it felt rather rushed by I'm sure that is just because we walked fast. In Kilkenny Castle, the nursery room was a heck of a lot more fancy than any room I've ever had. They also had a Chinese style room to display their wealth, we were in the guest corridor, so they had to show off by putting stuff they had gotten from China in a guest bedroom. Apparently that was a theme. Then the entrance room had an original table that didn't get auctioned away like everything else when the house was sold simply because it was a huge, heavy table. Who would wanna move it after all right? Kilkenny had grounds that were open to the public and they were very peaceful and nice to wander around in. Then my mum and I went on a walk through Kilkenny during daylight hours and checked everything out there before having a quick lunch and heading to the bus.

Photo Cred: Mum
Kilkenny Castle: Some House

On our way back to the bus however, we got distracted and ended up going into the Kilkenny Castle's stableyard that was right across the street. It had been turned into a gallery to show off art and such and had this house that is kindly labeled "Some House" above, behind the stableyard. The yard was very nicely kept I will tell you that. The house had vines growing all over it, don't worry I have a close up of it. Vines are so pretty clinging to houses, too bad its not good for the houses right?

Photo Cred: Mum
Kilkenny Castle: Some House

Photo Cred: Mum
Kilkenny Castle: Stable yard

After Kilkenny Castle, we got on the bus and headed back to Dublin. We were supposed to hit the St. Patty's Church when we got to Dublin, but seeing as how it was Good Friday, the church was only open for praying or something. We snuck in under the pretense that we were praying and just slowly walked to the pews and then slowly walked to the bathroom and then slowly walked out in order to see. We didn't get the tour that we were supposed to have, but I wasn't interested anyway so s'all cool. Since we didn't get the tour we were given free time to explore Dublin. My mum, Fancy Lady, and I went to the Trinity College Library in order to see the Book of Kells, which I wasn't actually going for but had nothing better to do and it was a Library so why not go along? Also Fancy Lady is the president of my mum's college, my lil sister calls her Fancy Lady so I decided I'm gonna as well. 

The library was pretty great, we arrived with 15 minutes until it was gonna closed so we slightly cut it short but still got to see a lot. I decided that I'm gonna get a library like that in my house someday because it was grand and I probably need just about that many books. I also most definitely need a spiral staircase or 5 in my library.

Photo Cred: Mildred
Trinity College Library

Photo Cred: Mildred
Trinity College Library

Then we walked around Dublin after that closed for about an hour before heading to our hotel for dinner and sleeping. Mum and I went on a walk after dinner too down a path I saw on my first night in Dublin when I walked to the hotel. 

Photo Cred: Mum
Natural History Museum: Mosaic Floor

Photo Cred: Mum
Natural History Museum: Ceiling

The next day, I decided I wanted to be at the airport by noon so my backpack and all my belongings went with me on our free day in Dublin. Mum, Kalene, and I ended up at the Natural History Museum, where most people ended up, and we went and saw the bog folk. Their bodies had been preserved in the bog, so they were super old dead bodies that were actually pretty well preserved. We also got to see bog butter, because back in the day they didn't have fridges to store stuff, so they stored it in the bog to keep it from going bad. Pretty nifty use for the bog I'd say. The bog is also used for heating, so they cut out the turf or whatever and burn it, which is why people are at risk of falling into the bog and being lost forever because you don't know where they cut the bog up and left a hole. After the museum, I hopped on a bus, went to the Dublin airport, was delayed like an hour without being told. We stood in line to get on the plane, because once your gate is announced you just start standing in line, especially when it claims you're boarding, but the plane wasn't even there until about an hour later. Then I flew to Barcelona and spent the night playing games and reading stories in the airport before flying back to Santiago and sleeping from 10am until 7pm, and then going to sleep shortly after dinner again.

I don't really remember what all I've written on my blog now since I also had to write about my trip for my portfolio. Doesn't matter that I've written in two different languages the same thing, I can't remember where I said what. So possibly repeating information now! 

Tony our bus driver/tour guide/all around wonderful person, told us lots of stories and history of Ireland. We learned a bunch, which had my head swimming and I can't say that I remember all of it because it was so much information. Basically I need the coordinator's job so I can go back to Ireland every year in order to gain all knowledge. Anyhoo, he told us how lots of sayings came about and one of them was "raining cats and dogs". In Ireland, they have thatched roofs, which are roofs made of hay or straw or something in case you didn't know. So on the rare sunny days, the cats and dogs would go sunbathing on the roofs and then when it rained the thatched roofs would get extremely slippery and the dogs and cats would slide right off the roof. The unsuspecting person exiting the house could be hit by a dog or cat falling from the roof, so came about the phrase raining cats and dogs.

The carrying people (wives) across the threshold tradition came from Ireland as well. Back in the day, houses had dirty floors that were covered in straw or hay or whatever and when they walked out of the house, they would end up dragging it out with them. Eventually the floor would start getting muddy because the straw, hay or whatever would be dragged out. So they introduced the threshold board to keep the straw, hay or whatever from running away. Can't be dragged out if you have to step over something ya know. So then to keep people (wives) from tripping as they entered their home, the people (husbands) would carry them across the threshold.

I remember learning of another really good phrase origin, but I can't remember what it was so sad day. 

That was my trip to Ireland though people! I hope I can go back someday and explore some more while not on a strict schedule.

Into the Castle Bellies

On March 24th, Thursday, we visited Blarney Castle. Blarney Castle was probably one of my favorite places for this trip because it was just oh so awesome. I greatly enjoyed all the nature and such that we got to see. The castle itself was rather cool, not as put back together as the Bunratty Castle, but not a complete ruin. I definitely liked seeing the contrast of the two castles. Blarney Castle actually has people that live on the estate at the Blarney House, which sadly was closed to guests but I'm sure was super cool and richy richy looking. We climbed the 100 steps to the top of Blarney tower and watched a bunch of people kiss the Blarney stone, which apparently gives you the gift of eloquence. I already have as much eloquence as I can handle so I didn't kiss the stone, plus the fact that you have to basically be suspended over the edge of the Castle (100 steps up) in order to kiss the stone. I also heard the locals pee on it, which seems slightly unlikely since it seems to be pretty well guarded, but you never can be too sure! Since I didn't need eloquence or a picture of me kissing it, I decided against it. Then we got to explore the grounds of Blarney Castle and it was gorgeous! I loved the grounds and really wish we had more time at Blarney than anywhere else because there just wasn't enough time. We had about 2 hours or so at Blarney to walk around and explore, but one of the trails we could take was over half that time and by the time we were ready to walk it we only had about an hour left, bummer. It was definitely somewhere I could hang out for days at a time though... #naturegurllongastherearecleanbathrooms

Photo Cred: Mildred
Blarney Castle Grounds

Photo Cred: Mildred
Blarney Castle Grounds

Photo Cred: Mildred
Blarney Castle Wishing Steps

There's a story at Blarney Castle that anyone who would walk down and back up these stairs thinking of only one single wish with their eyes closed would have that wish granted to them in a year. Or the story is something close to that, obviously it had to do something with wishing since they were called the wishing steps. A witch used to live near there or something and would steal something, I think it was for heating, from the Blarney Castle so in payment she would grant wishes.

Photo Cred: Mildred
Blarney Castle: No big deal we were at the top of that...

Once we were done with Blarney Castle, we did a quick perusal of the 3 story shop called Blarney Woolen Mills. It was huge and my mum found some nice clothes for real cheap (I managed to steal one before we parted ways at the end of the week). Then we were on our way to the Cobh Heritage Center in Cobh, which is pronounced Cove. They literally just took the British town's name and changed it to a "bh" because there is no "v" in Irish speak or something like that. Gaelic in case anyone wanted to know the technical term of Irish speak. 

I wasn't super impressed with the Cobh Heritage Center, it was cool learning about the people that boarded the Titanic in Queenstown (Cobh) but I've been to so many Titanic museums now that they sort of just blur together. I did get to survive the Titanic as some musician guy, something Daly. We also learned that the Titanic story with Rose and whats his face decaprio was a story from the two hours that the Titanic was docked in Cobh. A girl decided to run away with someone she loved and her brother chased them around the ship with a gun or somewhere along those lines was how the story went. They had a cool quilt that was dedicated to the Irish passengers. 123 passengers boarded the Titanic in Queenstown (Cobh) and 44 survived the sinking. We had lunch at the center too which consisted of a red velvet muffin and a lemon muffin, they both were great.

Then after Cobh we headed to Cork to see the Rock of Cashel. It was super windy up there and just a lil bit wet. While it was very much so a religious sight, I was very intrigued by the story behind the place. The tour guide was great at giving out information for sure. He even warned us to be careful where we stepped because rocks are slippery and we may wipe out, I promptly wiped out after he said that. I was the only casualty though so its k. So the chapel at Cashel is currently being covered by a temporary roof because the building was so saturated with water that it would eventually collapse on itself. Once the roof dries out more, they are going to label all the bricks, and take apart the building to rebuild it with some protection seal to keep the water from doing damage. I mean it rains all the time up there, so obviously there will be damage galor. The tour guide also basically informed us that the monks that lived there were badasses. It was freezing up there and the monks wore the bare minimum because they were in the monk life ya know. They had to protect their Cashel so even more badass there. And the architecture of the place was just great. They had a pathway, as seen in the last photo of the Rock of Cashel photos, around the interior of the building to protect it that went up and over the arches in the middle. It was grand and I wish it was in a state we could have climbed through the arches, but sadly they aren't open to the public. 

Photo Cred: Mum
Rock of Cashel

Photo Cred: Mum
Rock of Cashel: Wall Holes

Pay attention to the holes in the walls in this picture, that I kindly labeled as wall holes. Back in the day when they were all about building tall structures, they would just throw wood beams in to stand on while they built upward. Obvious the beams had a piece of wood laid across because no one has that large of arms. But once the building was complete, they would chop the wood off to the edge of the building and just leave the rest in there, covering it up with something but I forget what. Eventually it would rot away because the something that was covering it would fall off. Pretty snazzy story ik. 

Photo Cred: Mum
Rock of Cashel: Arches that have secret tunnels in there

Photo Cred: Mum
Rock of Cashel

Back in the day when glass was first discovered to be a thing, Ireland created a window tax. So Cashel being cool and all that, covered up parts of the window so they didn't have to pay as much of the tax. We also were told something was imperfect about these windows, but I don't remember what it was. Back in the day, they always would throw something off in their works because it showed that not all humans are perfect. I was pretty impressed with them going through such great efforts, probably not that great an effort but still, to get this message out there by leaving imperfections in their works. 

Photo Cred: Mum
Rock of Cashel

Photo Cred: Mum
Rock of Cashel: The secret passageways

After that we headed to Kilkenny, had dinner, and then mum and I went on a random walk of discovery where we saw a tour group of witches. They were seriously dressed as witches. It was a pretty great Thursday, I will admit, and we didn't get cursed by the witches, at least I hope not... Knock on wood?

Burren and Cliffs and Castles oh my!

Photo Cred: Mum
The Burren

Photo Cred: Mildred
The Burren

Photo Cred: Mum
The Burren

On March 23rd, we began our adventure to the Cliffs of Moher. We had a nice little stop in the Burren which apparently is the coordinator person's most favorite stop of all time in Ireland (he's been on the trip 3 years in a row or something cause he's in charge ya know). So we saw the lovely Burren, which I don't really have any information on other than that its "a rugged lunar-like limestone landscape" from our itinerary. It was gorgeous though and we could go right out to the edge.

Photo Cred: Mildred
The Burren

After we spent an insufficient amount of time at the Burren, because let's be honest I could've walked around on the Burren for most of the day, we were back on our way to the Cliffs! I decided that this part of Ireland would probably make a great backpacking area with all that landscaping. I mostly decided this because I couldn't keep my eyes open on the bus but it was gorgeous and I really wanted to see it all. 

So the Cliffs of Moher were pretty cool. We were told to stay away from the edge because with all the high wind and such there could be erosion going on underneath the top layer that we  couldn't see. Apparently Tony had to watch a bunch of videos on people having the land collapse beneath them as they fell to their deaths at the Cliffs of Moher in order to become a bus tour guide person so that he would know the danger was real. Mum and I walked around for a long while, we had about 2 hours or something at the Cliffs of Moher. We went to the dangerous direction of the Cliffs where we were told no edge walking and then we went up the hill towards the O'brien's tower. The watch tower was old and apparently this was the first year people were actually allowed to climb up it on this trip, mum and I decided not to though since we could already see pretty far and everything awesome on such a high hill. The wind up there was wicked and tried to steal my hat one too many times for my liking, but not as windy as other years since that was the reason the tower sometimes was closed. Then once we were done exploring, we gave ourselves about 30 minutes I believe to go grab something to eat and explore the visitor's center/shops. In the visitor's center they had a little interactive museum thing that was kinda cool. We tried watching the movie, but it was almost 3-D and that almost 3-D was making us both motion sick so we didn't last in there for very long. 

Photo Cred: Mildred
Cliffs of Moher

Photo Cred: Mildred
O'brien's Tower at Cliffs of Moher

Photo Cred: Mildred
Cliffs of Moher

Photo Cred: Tony, the bus driver/guide
Cliffs of Mohey

Photo Cred: Mildred
Bunratty Castle

 After the Cliffs of Moher, we headed to the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. We didn't really have sufficient time there either, but that was becoming a common occurrence so we had to get used to it I suppose. The Bunratty Castle was a Castle dressed in Victorian times and the guide for the first part of the tour had a very articulate accent that just made me think she was trying to sound like she was from Victorian times as well, she was dressed like it too. We got to climb up to the top tower of Bunratty to check out the view, so it was slightly slow going because heights and spiral staircases but we got there. It was at Bunratty where we learned the purpose of the spiral staircases, which was to help defend the castle. The way that someone ran up the spiral staircase would require them to hold their sword in their left hand, which not many people are lefthanded so that gave the defenders an advantage. The defenders also would be able to go down the stairs while carrying the sword in their right hand. With the narrowness of the spiral stairs, you could just pick off the enemy one by one, which is pretty great thinking on their part. If an enemy does get to the top though, the top step is slightly taller than all the others to trip up the enemy. They wouldn't be looking down while fighting off people anyway! I'm sure I learned other fun facts at Bunratty, the tour guide was great after all, but I can't remember since I learned so many things over in Ireland....

Photo Cred: Mildred
Bunratty Castle

After that we headed to Cork where our hotel for the night was and had dinner.