so that one time i had a scenerygasim in ireland...

Having college roomie come over and play in Ireland last week was amazing (ps. go read her blog, I love her writing and she always makes me laugh). I loved being able to show one of my best friends around the country I absolutely love and showing her some insight on my life here and getting to show her a few of my favourite places and of course the opportunity for an adventure.

So I went up to Limerick Thursday night (and survived, haha - Limerick is known as Stab City) because Amy's flight was coming in at 6am at Shannon and the airport was only about 20 minutes away so I could catch a local bus. So up super early and caught the bus, went to the shop to buy her a coffee and she was walking towards me as her flight was early. So after some GIGANTIC hugs and eeeeeeee!!! I'm in Ireland and such, we picked up the keys to Peat and headed off on our adventure.

Now I know I posted already about driving in Ireland, so I'll try not to talk much about the driving adventures. So it was dark and sunny/rainy (usual Ireland, sunny with every 20-30 minutes lashing rain for about 5 minutes) and we decided to head to the Cliffs of Moher. So after some slight confusion - seriously Irish roads are not marked at all, so after a little detour we made our way there and it was gorgeous! the sun was mostly shining though there was a few minutes of rain and hail as we were driving there. so we get there and as usual it was OMG windy. so the awesome thing about being at the cliffs at 9am, there was no one else there. it was so awesome! now this was my fourth time at the cliffs - october 2005, october 2007, december 2008, january 2009, so i've seen them in all sorts of weather. cloudy and slightly drizzly, cloudy with some sun, omg winds and rain.... but with amy it was crazy, it was sunny, cloudy, hail, pouring rain, sunny, omg windy... just didn't want to make up its mind, so the views were pretty good considering the weather!

me along the cliffs - amy took this one

so that was fun, and honestly even though I've been so many times, I just can't get over how pretty they are. Walking up the hill and getting your first good look just makes me happy, especially since the last 3 times I went I've been going with someone who has never been, so seeing their reaction is sooo much fun! So we frolicked around, took some crazy pictures, almost got blown away, crossed the crazy lake and had to walk through the waterup... there was a place where the wind was just wicked and blew up water, crazy! So after freezing and getting soaked we headed back to the car to plan our next stop. Amy wanted to go to an abbey... and I remembered reading about this abbey up in Connemara (and passing by when in Letterfrack for New Years 2008) so we consulted the guidebook and map and said why not! this is why we rented a car. 

So we set off, carefully consulting the map to see the two random little roads we needed to get to 18 and towards Galway. Well somewhere along the way, I wasn't paying attention to the signs and we ended up in the Burren. Now I'd never been to the Burren, and it is quite large, there are a ton of megalithic tombs and it is an archeologists heaven, and we didn't see any of the tombs, because we just kinda drove around it, but gorgeous landscape, especially right along the coast. 

So it was a nice little detour (and I got to see a new place!), so after we realised we had gone in a circle, I paid much more attention to the road signs to follow the one I wanted and we were headed north to Connemara through Galway. 

Now the weather was being quite amazing, they were calling for horrible weather, like it had been the last few days. Lashing rain, winds and just ugggggh. But somehow there was amazing blue sky, some big fluffy happy clouds (which were fast moving) and some winds, with an occasional 3-5 minute long rain. So the scenery of western Ireland was OMGtastic. Like unbelievable and I've been up to Connemara before. So it was along here I coined the phrase scenerygasim, because honestly it was kfklflllfgjsjdfkgdkasfllfg. 

So every so often Amy and I would pull over and take pictures, or when the road was like this and there were no cars in either direction, I would stop and we would roll down the windows an take pictures. So I was loving the driving, but being slightly distracted by the scenery... and well it was my first day driving on the other side of the road, so luckily there weren't many cars. 

So were driving and all of a sudden we see the abbey.... and it is just amazing!

so we walked around and found out more, the abbey was founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle (pictured above) when the family sold it and the nuns had fled from Belguim during WWI. The place is still an abbey today, with a few rooms in the house available to tour and decorated in the late Victorian fashion. And also on the grounds was the cutest little Cathedral. 

The Cathedral was built in the 1870s and is a mini replica of the Norwich Cathedral in England. It had gorgeous marble and was just so adorable. While walking around it did hail on us, silly weather. So after the abbey fun, we headed back towards Galway where we were spending the night. It was along here that Peat got slightly banged up... a big truck caused me to hit the passenger mirror on a stone wall (oops, why we got the extra insurance!) but it was fine, just kinda scratched. So once in Galway we just wanted to crash, because we were both dead! After flying all night, waking up at the crack of dawn and spending most of the day in the car! So we headed into town to find food - we found a great pub - Front Door where we had dinner and Amy got to taste the wonderfullness of an Irish Guinness and then we headed back to get some sleep, but not before me buying Bruce's new cd 5 days before it came out in the States. 

So we were up Saturday morning to explore Galway. I had been with Megan in October 2007 when she came to visit, so it was fun to see it again. We went all over the adorable little city centre (I love Galway!), the Spanish Arches, the cathedrals, Claddagh (where the rings come from), the university and just had fun poking about. I also bought myself antother Claddagh ring, as I bought one when I was there last time, but I lost it somewhere, and I was being crazy and only wanted to get one from Galway... 

Amy and the Spanish Arch - one of the gates to the walled city of Galway

So we decided to down to Killarney, and by now I was getting more comfortable with driving and besides stopping at a gorgeous place between Limerick and Killarney for lunch.

Once we get to Killarney, there was still a few hours of daylight left, so we went to Torc Waterfall, and then did a bit of the Ring of Kerry, I wanted to show her the lakes of Killarney, Ladies View and also show her an example of one of my favourite hikes. We again were tired, so we just headed into town to one of my favourite Italian restaurants where we shared a bottle of wine and talked for the next 2 hours while stuffing ourselves.  The next morning we were off to explore more, unfortunately the weather was the usual rainy Irish day with lots of clouds, but we made the best of it and went for a drive so I could show here where the Reeks are (those mountains I climb a lot) and then we went exploring through the national park and then off to Ross Castle and the Gap of Dunloe - where there were no sheep for the first time and I've been to the Gap a million times to hike. 

Lakes of Killarney

So our last stop on the adventure was to head to Blarney Castle. So we said goodbye to Killarney and I welcomed her to Co. Cork! We had fun exploring the Castle and the grounds, and we both "kissed" the stone.. aka bent over backwards but didn't actually kiss it. 

 Amy and I at the Castle

Once we returned Peat (it was sad to say goodbye to a car) I showed Amy around my house, then took her to the BEST chipper in Cork and just relaxed. 

Monday and Tuesday were kinda chill, as I had to work, but during the day she explored Cork. But I didn't take a lunch so I left at 4 and on Monday we explored the university and then went into town where I took her to the world's best hot chocolate (everyone I've taken there has agreed) and then we went home to cook. Now Monday night I was supposed to meet a friend and go to the Pub Quiz, so we are texting back and forth, and Amy and I leave and text her that we are at the pub, so she could walk the 2 minutes from her house. When she texts back, I'm not feeling well, do you mind if I don't come.... I was SOOOO mad. I really wanted Amy to meet a few of my Cork friends and we were texting right before I left my house, couldn't you have told me then instead of once we were there and it was pouring rain! GAHHHh! So Amy and I finished our pints - I had her try Kopparberg - my FAV pear cider we decided just to go home and watch a movie, plus the pub quiz isn't really fun with only 2 people. So Tuesday she runs off to Midleton to go to the Jameson Distillary where she had a private tour, because she was only person there! And after we went to Fitzgerald Park (one of my fav places in the city) and then ack for some hot chocolate :) After dinner we met up with my summer roomie - Brenda for a few pints and the craic. So that was fun and they got along well, YAY!  

Amy and Brenda

So we went back to pack and get ready to wake up at a redic hour to head to SPAIN!

So there are the adventures of Amy and Erin in Ireland. I had an amazing time with roomie and getting to a few new places around the Emerald Isle and DRIVING! 

If you want to see more pictures just let me know and I can send you the link to them :)