edinburgh and letterfrack

back to reality.

its a friday afternoon at 4.20 pm and i'm at work. luckily the rain has stopped, it was pouring and hailing this morning and the sidewalks were slippy this morning walking to work. i've worked all day yesterday and today, and it hasn't been too bad, its been kinda busy, i've printed out so many copies of the available apartments and houses, because new international students have arrived. yesterday suzanne from the international office came by with 10 international students who all needed housing - i was like ahhhhhh! especially because there were 2 different couples who were looking to live together, somehow we found them both something together, and we've had one guy in like 7 times the last two days, not wanting to do anything on his own, he wanted us to call up all the places he was interested in and then call him back. ummm. NO. but otherwise its been good.

the last two weeks were fabulous :)

spending a week in edinburgh over christmas with laura was fabulous!
it was so great to see her, it has been way too long.
seriously it was exactly 2 years since i last saw her and it felt as if it was like a month ago.
we caught up on our lives, the crazyness of it all and everything.
and we explored edinburgh, which is just fabulous!
we did museums, castles, walked around, i met a lot of her friends, did a ghost tour, had a great christmas eve and christmas dinner and then we went to st. andrews!
we walked around the campus, the cathedral, the old course and the town and took a ton of pictures.
i was really sad to leave edinburgh, but hopefully laura will come visit me in cork soon, or we can plan an adventure away somewhere.

i got back home about 11 pm friday night, with a killer headache and lots of laundry, and was meeting friends at 11am the next morning to head up to letterfrack in co. galway to celebrate the new year with the mountaineering club. so i did laundry and attempted to pack, aka threw some hiking gear and real clothes in my pack and hoped for the best.

letterfrack was amazing!! left on the 29th with amanda, jack and karen on the bus, and spent a lovely day riding up there. met up with everyone, then the 4 of us who rode the bus decided to go for a quick night hike. the stars were just gorgeous! we did diamond hill, the only handicapped accessible mountain in ireland. we broke all the rules for diamond hill and pretended it was everest. it was great craic, took lots of funny photos. then after our hike, we just relaxed and talked with everyone in the hostel.

sunday morning we all woke up early to go hiking, a group of 11 of us did the sheefries mountains and it was so much fun!! after putting rocks in colin's pack and then finally figuring out how to get to the mountain we hiked, the first hour was hell, straight up hill, pretty much 780m in one go, and after that walking along the ridge was grand, some great views, the clouds are so awesome in connemara. after hacking our way through the forest we got back to our cars. we made dinner and then hung out more, talking, drinking and we decided to head to the pubs, had some great conversation and went to all 3 pubs in letterfrack. whoohoo!

monday morning i went with a smaller group of 6 to do croagh patrick, its ireland's holy mountain. it was fun, but actually a lot harder then i expected after hearing stories of nuns climbing it. it was mostly uphill, and complete scree, especially the final ascent. but it was fun and some gorgeous views! the highlight had to be the girl in the miniskirt and boots, and here we are in our climbing gear all tough. haha.
but it was a great hike, lots of laughs.
then after that and dinner the new years eve fun began, we all started to drink and just hang out, i had some poitin (the illegial irish whiskey) and man was it strong. and then after finishing that headed down to the pub with everyone, which was fab! there was a guy playing guitar singing, so we were all singing along, dancing and just having fun, we were pretty much the only people there, there were about 20 of us, and about 10 locals. after the pub, hung out back at the hostel.

tuesday, most of us were lazy and just relaxed around the hostel, reading, having fun and talking. we played a few games and had fun at night, including who am i and the charades. it was pretty funny, and great craic, a perfect way to spend the end and begining of the year. wednesday took the bus home, and then because we are crazy and didn't just spend enough time with each other, i met a bunch of people at the pub, because its wednesday night, and what else do you do?

so now i'm just talking with my dad and sister, and off to climb and then the pub.