Ireland

We got up early and caught a flight on Ryanair from Paris to Dublin Ireland. This is an airline that does really cheap flights between all of the European countries. Its actually decent too....except for the fact that you can have one check in bag no more than 15kg (33 lbs.) and one carry on. They are very strict about it too! So we had to all do some reaaranging of luggage and carryons and used big Gap bags to help.
When we got to Ireland I noticed a couple of things quickly. They have row houses with brightly colored doors, its very green, they have a lot of rod iron gates, and they use a lot of dark woods in the decor of their pubs, hotels and stores. I LOVED it! We explored their downtown area in the shopping district. The streets were very clean, had a lot of hanging flower pots, and the people were noticeably more attractive then the other countries we had already been in. We found a great pub for lunch and pretty much took over the whole upstairs. We sat on nice leather couches and ate our lunches on the coffe tables. It was nice to relax. We dined for a long time. Which is true to all of the places we dined the whole week. I think we had to ask for the check every time because they just expect you to sit for a long time. Jared had "Bangers and Mash" very traditional to the area. Sausage and mashed potatoes drizzled in yummy gravy/sauce.
For our evening entertainment we went to see "River Dance". I was enamored with it. It was riveting! The dancers were beautiful and the sound their feet made was so powerful. We had great seats on the 3rd row. The guys all took turns dozing off during it and the gals couldn't stop ogling over the main dancing couple who were beautiful. The man was so nice looking he was pretty, but not in a "gay" way. He looked very irish to me and it made the show that much more amazing. The after show performance in the street in front of the theatre from our activities director Doug was pretty amazing too, although I think he pulled a muscle in his hip!




Bangers and Mash

River Dance!!
The next morning we woke up early and flew down to "CORK". Its an area in the southern coastal region of Ireland. It was amazing to fly into. Very overcast, green, and well, umm more green. The guys headed off to golf while the girls headed to the "Dingle Peninsula" (I swear I'm not making that name up!) It was a long drive to get there, but provided an amazing loop of road snaking along the coast that we drove on to see so much of the country and farm area. This is where parts of Far and Away were filmed.
We saw lots of sheep, green farmlands, coastal outlooks, and teenagers. The teenagers are sent to schools to learn traditional gaelic in this region in the summer. We got rained on a bit, but I enjoyed the change in weather. Jeans and jackets in July? Way okay by this Las Vegan. We tried a deep fried Mars bar for fun in one of the cities....because apparently they aren't fatty enough as is! It was served with ice-cream and had deep fried batter all around it. It was pretty good, but we all shared one and that was plenty!
We flew back to Dublin that night on Ryanair (barely making our flight) and headed to TGIF for some American food before heading to bed. Ireland was one of my favorite stops because the people were beautiful, the streets were clean, they seem to live simply, and I loved "River Dance".
Where the guys golfed