Great craic !!

Well I now only have weekends left in Ireland, and I can honestly say I am 100% happy about that!  Ireland is by far my favorite European country, and every weekend reminds me of that.  However, the idea of St. Patrick's Day in Ireland made me a little nervous!  I'm not much of a drinker, and we all know St. Patrick's Day is most people's excuse to get really drunk.  Let's say I was not overly excited to see the drunken show of St. Patrick's Day, but I tried to put on a smile and get in the spirit - the sober spirit though!  I started off the weekend - on that Wednesday night - by seeing my FAVORITE band, The Civil Wars, play in Dublin!  I've had these concert tickets since December, before I even got to Dublin!  It was one of the best concerts I've seen, the harmonies were gorgeous and I was in a trance the whole night.  They were great performers, and I absolutely loved getting to see them here.

It was then time for the stereotypical Irish day - oh, St. Patrick's Day.  I prepared for the day with a festive outfit - shamrock socks, a green sheep shirt, and a sequin green headband.  Not too over the top, but I loved it!  In the morning, I attempted to venture to the St. Patrick's Day festival - along with 500,000 people.  I waited for about an hour, with intervals of rain, and saw about two minutes of the parade (some sort of marching band) before having to go meet the rest of IES to go to Croke Park.  So I didn't get to see much of a St. Patrick's Day festival, but it was fun people-watching with everyone dressed up!  There were more people than I ever imagined, they were climbing on statues and all over the place!  However, one thing I was surprised about was there wasn't many drunk people milling about!  The crowd was filled with smiles and eyes gleaming with Irish pride, but I didn't witness any drunken stupor!  That is, until I went to go meet up with the IES crowd.  Turns out the drunkenness is more of an American tourist thing!  It was quite an amusing site, there was only about five out of the 50 of us that was sober.  So our big group headed to Croke Park for the GAA Club Championships to see hurling and gaelic football!  It was a great way to spend an Irish holiday, even if I'm not much of a sports person.  The games were brilliant, I had no idea what to expect.  Both sports are extremely intense and I kept cringing, the violence was a little much for me!  I knew rugby was intense, but it seems like all Irish sports include violence!  In the Gaelic Football match, there was several yellow cards.  I didn't know who to cheer for, so I chose to cheer for both teams!  The stadium wasn't too packed, we didn't even have any Irish fans surrounding us.  But it was a great afternoon of St. Patty's Day, and I'm glad I had the option to experience the sports culture! I stayed in at night to avoid the madness, and no regrets there.  Most of us stayed in, because we knew it wouldn't be worth it with all the tourists.  I went out the next night to a pub, so I get that experience enough while living here!

This weekend, I got to share my Irish experience with one of my best friends form home - Claire Nicholas!  I've been in a homesick funk, and I was overjoyed to get to see a familiar face.  She ran into some trouble trying to meet up with me when she got here, because she didn't know there was a time difference, but we finally got together and I basically jumped on her when I saw her! It's so funny to have two worlds collide, and I loved having a friend from home visiting my new home in Dublin.  She really got to see me in my element!  We honestly just spent a lot of time talking and just hanging out, but we did take an awesome day trip!  We did a Paddywagon tour to Wicklow, Glendalough and Kilkenny. It was absolutely stunning!  We got to take a walk through the national park and see Kilkenny Castle.  It was so nice just being able to hangout in the gorgeous countryside with my best friend.  It's been one of my favorite days in Ireland!

 I also got the amazing opportunity to spend a day on an Irish farm!  During...LAMBING SEASON! It was my dream come true - a day hanging out with lambs and puppies.  Sincerely, it was everything I had hoped for.  By the end of the day, I was covered with sheep poo, which is to be expected haha!  I got to see sheep being herded by a sheepdog, bake Irish brown bread, learn how to play hurling (I was decent!), see a lamb right after it was born, milk a cow (I even squirted its milk into my mouth...) and play with sheepdog puppies all day.
A great day all in all!

Finally....IRELAND.

I've spent most of my weekends traveling around Europe, which has been glorious, spectacular, breath-taking, and everything I could ever dream of.  However, I was definitely in need of some country side time, and missing Ireland - the green Ireland I adore, not the city of Dublin.  I'm not much of a city person, and I appreciate the country side far more than I ever could appreciate the tourist attractions of any city.  I'm writing this a little late, so it was two weekends ago that I went to Kerry - the southern coast of Ireland (more specifically, in Dingle.) This has been my absolute favorite weekend trip thus far, and being surrounded by green fields and fresh air was everything I hoped it would be.  About a three hour train journey from Dublin, we started out our Kerry adventure with a HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE. Side note - this was an IES (my study abroad program) sponsored trip, so they had everything planned and we were just along for the ride!  This experience was my favorite activity I've done in Europe.  It was about an hour ride through the mountains, just feeling the cold breeze in my face and praising God for His masterpiece of the landscape!  It was one of those moments of pure content - I was happy to be alive, living my beautiful life, and just felt overwhelmingly grateful to be me, carefully crafted by God to be His servant.  What a blessing He chose me to be me!!!! I was a happy camper to say the least(:

After that beautiful journey, we went on a boat tour of the lakes - with the most adorable dog - Charlie - that you've ever laid your eyes on! (BESIDES OLLIE AND SIMON...my doggies at home! Okay, and my grandma's dog Lexie is up there, too!) Charlie was a gem, pawing for attention and causing laughter the whole boat ride.  The boat ride reminded me a lot of a boat ride I took around this time last year - in Guatemala. I remember listening to a worship CD on my Ipod and just praising God for his boundless beauty.  That really applies everywhere I go - He just never stops with the beauty! Lucky us(:

We then took a stroll in the Killarney National Park (where the lakes were, as well) and ended up at a beautiful waterfall.  I tried to be my adventurous self and climb through the rocks to get closer, but I was not dressed for the occasion and was wearing nice boots.  So...I tried barefoot, but it didn't go so well and I definitely had a few bruised battle wounds.  & I didn't get too far...but hey, it was still pretty even if I wasn't one foot in front of it hehe!  After frolicking through the greenest fields you've ever seen, we headed to see some beehive huts - early monastic dwellings dating back to 1200 AD! They were tiny on the inside, it's so strange to the see difference of living spaces.  I can't imagine people today trying to fit all their worldly possessions in that hut!

We then got to frolic on a beach for a few hours, and what fun that was! I spent some time alone just talking with God and spending some much needed quiet time with Him.  The best place for that is definitely a secluded beach!!

We ended the day with a pottery lesson...I know, random! It was a little harder than I thought it would be, and I butchered my cup-like creation halfway through...but corrected my mistakes and I think it turned out decent!

The last day in Kerry was another highlight - I opted to go horseback riding through the mountains!  Granted, I haven't been horseback riding in years (and after the bike fiasco I was a little nervous...) but it turned out brilliantly! I must say, I was a natural. Although my horse...King...was a BRAT! He was the new guy in the pack, so he had to walk at the end of the line.  But the horse in front of him...BOB...wanted to take advantage of this.  Bob had been in the back for years, and now that he was next to last, he became extremely territorial.  Three different times, Bob spun around and spooked my horse, who would spin around as if to say.."kiss my ass, Bob!" Silly, silly horses.  I had to stay back a few paces so King wasn't too close to Bob, and King was not happy about this.  He kept pulling on the reins and it was definitely an arm work out for an hour.  But worth it(:  The scenery was spectacular, as always, and riding horses may be one of my new favorite activities! Overall, Kerry was a splendid success!

Chocolate, waffles, Jesus' blood, chocolate, waffles, &more chocolate.

That pretty sums up my trip to Belgium this past weekend! I know, Belgium?! Sounds random, right?! Brussels was a cheap flight from Dublin, so why not?! I'm definitely tired of exploring cities and am in some real need of the countryside, but I can't complain when I get to travel all the time!  Belgium was a fantastic country, and most importantly...with amazing chocolate and waffles!! I came home with a permanent stomach ache and can guarantee chocolate will never taste as good as it did in Belgium.  We spent a night hopping to different chocolate shops, and they kept giving us free chocolates!  I kept wanting to buy only one chocolate, but they would give it to me for free instead! Hehe totally fine with me!!! We spent a lot of time just roaming the streets of Belgium, in the main square and random side streets with even more chocolate shops.  I had a fiasco with a Belgian waffle - the strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate ate my face.  My picture of the waffle attack -

We went to the main tourist attraction of Brussels - the Atomium, which wasn't as cool on the inside as it looks on the outside.  It was basically just an architecture museum. However it did have a view of Mini Europe (it was CLOSED....) so I was happy camper, I could somewhat see it through the fog!

 There's a famous statue - the Manneken, in Brussels of a little boy peeing. Weird famous statue to have...

 Above is a replica of him eating a waffle, but below is the real little guy!

I also went to the chocolate museum, so yummy! But at this point, I had a stomach ache and literally forced myself to eat more chocolate!

We got to visit another town in Belgium, Brugges, which was only an hour train ride away. Brugges was such a delightful little town, I definitely enjoyed it more than Brussels.  I had two very interesting experiences while in Brugges.  First, I got to see the blood of Jesus Christ.  Apparently.  The Basilica of the Precious Blood has a tube with Jesus' blood in it...I don't know the story behind it (because I don't speak French and couldn't ask!) But I went to go see it anyways.  It was pretty gross looking, but I still felt excited about the possibility and said a prayer touching the glass case! I didn't think it was possible, but I didn't do research to find out. 

My second experience was deciding to rent a bike.  I haven't been on a bike in about ten years, but I figured you never forget how to ride a bike! HA HA HA joke's on me!!! Because I DID forget how, not that I was ever good at it in the first place.  Why did I think I could just hop on a bike on a crowded street in Belgium and just be on my merry way?! The first time I tried, I couldn't turn and I ran into a man.  Yes, a human man. SMACK into him. & I don't speak French, so I just kept apologizing as he stared at me in confusion.  As I tried again, I ran into a cafe window.  I didn't even look up, but I did laugh at myself on that one. Really Ariana, a cafe window?! Classy. After finding a side street to practice on, I finally got the hang of it after about ten minutes.  I was then exploring the streets of Belgium with no trouble at all, it was totally worth the effort!

Belgium, you were one weird country...