Heyyyyyy!

Whoa, I haven't actually written in this in a really long time. Let me see if I can think of everything that happened.

Troy came to visit. It was amazing. He took a FIFTEEN HOUR TRAIN here and back from Paris. We ate tons (Indian food unlimited buffet...and beer...yes???), we went to the chocolate festival, there were like thousands of people in the streets. There were chocolate carving festivals, people were like rioting over free chocolate, there were about 150 tents. There were chocolate statues of everything from animals to different types of food to um...body parts. Street performers, chocolate covered bananas, chocolate popcorn, chocolate pasta, chili pepper hot chocolate, the world's biggest bar of dark chocolate (it was BIG like bigger than my apartment)...it was so great. It was also amazing to see Troy. We had funnnn.

Then I had some midterms. I didn't study, I just distracted all my roommates while they studied. I still got an 89 and two 100s. They were pretty mad. I loved it.

Then I went to Ireland. GOD. There isn't enough I can say about that place. It was amazing. The people were incredible. Everyone is so nice and open and they just start conversations for no reason. It was so great. It also kind of reminds me of like, freshman year at college when everyone is falling down drunk on the weekends, only these people were all grown men and women, and it was like on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

But anyway. That's not the point. I went to Dublin last Saturday, which was...interesting. I started the day off really well by getting on the wrong bus, which should NOT have even happened because I was standing right next to the right one. So I got to the train station five minutes before my train left and jammed the ticket machine, and it ate all my money. So then I went running to the ticket counter screaming PER FAVORE! to people to let me cut them, and someone did, and I got in a fight with the ticket woman in Italian, finally gave up on getting my money back, bought a ticket and jumped on the train as it was leaving. Once I got to Rome, I got on a train going to "Ciampino," thinking it would go to Ciampino Airport. Obviously, it didn't. After waiting for the bus from the train station in Ciampino to the airport, I split a taxi with an older couple. But I made my flight, since I am lucky.

But I got there. I stayed with Jessie in Dublin; it was AWESOME. My roommates were there at the beginning, so we met up and toured some cathedrals, which were pretty amazing. We spent lots of time hanging out in Jessies apartment, which was kind of a hotspot for people at her school to hang out, so it was great. They had an AEROBED for me and a DOWN COMFORTER...it was better than my bed in Italy. Not kidding. We went on a hike to the Cliffs of Howth with Jessie's roommate Elaine, which are these cliffs near Dublin that are gorgeous. It was funny because, in the middle of nowhere on the cliffs, obviously, there was a pub. We found a puppy there; a hysterical Eastern European man in short shorts screamed that it had been abandoned and told us we needed to take care of it. It was interesting.

We also went to the Guinness Factory, which was actually AWESOME. It was one of the best museums ever...lots of really cool stuff to see about how they make Guinness and the ad campaigns and stuff. It actually was pretty informative, and they gave you a new Guinness blend in this sky bar on the top that looked out over Dublin. I uh, bought so many souvenirs there that I had to actually buy a duffel bag to bring them home in. Whoops. Also - I got to push the "brew" button that day...so the next 200,000 of you who drink a pint of Guinness, you're welcome. I made it. Kind of.

Pubs in Ireland were awesome. They're all dark and...Irish. Lots have fireplaces and really cool stuff all over the walls, and great food. They had lots of great drinks too...lots of cider, and this drink made of Guinness and some kind of black currant syrup, which is great. Everyone is always saying "let's go for a pint" there.

Anyway so then me and Jessie went to Galway. Galway was one of the best places I've ever been. It's really small, with all these colorful shops and tiny pubs. You get the feeling like it's not that cute just for tourists either, but it was like that anyway. There are swans everywhere and the grass is just this ridiculous emerald color that you wouldn't even believe if you saw it. We went out the first night for somefood, and while we were at the pub, these three guys came over and sat at our table. At first we were thinking, oh here we go... but they actually turned out to be great, and they just wanted to talk to us about America and Ireland and what we thought about things. There was a CRAZY middle aged guy sitting at our table too, he was an alcoholic and he just kept singing Irish drinking songs, banging on the tables, and telling people they reminded him of famous people (Prince, Mr. Bean, Osama Bin Laden?) He was harmless though, and he was hilarious. We all went next door, minus the insane man, to see some live Irish music from a guy that's pretty well-known in Galway. And...I am not exaggerating...this was the best live performance I have ever seen in my entire life. He was this small shy little guy onstage, but when he sang, every lyric was true, everything he said had this meaning that just seemed to work for everyone in the room. It was like everyone was under a spell, and we were all singing along in this tiny basement with a fireplace in the middle of western Ireland. It was so great. It was one of those moments that comes around unexpectedly that make you realize why you travel, I think. We went home after that and talked a lot with people in our hostel, who were great. (The singer's name was Niall Connolly, he's good if you download him too)

The next day we took a bus tour to all these tiny towns and the cliffs of Moher, which are these ridiculous gorgeous cliffs that just drop straight 700 feet into the sea. It was actually funny because me and Jessie were on the edge, and we are scared of heights, and it was windy, and apparently people actually blow off the cliffs of Moher all the time. So these bugs were attacking us, flying into our hair and our mouths and swarming, and then these crows were swooping over us, and Jessie hates birds, so she started screaming. Then there were all these cows behind us who came walking towards us when they heard the screaming (and uh, me blowing my nose), and I thought they were going to stampede us off the edge, so then we were both screaming, and then all of a sudden I remembered the cliff was two feet away and we could fall off into the ocean, and I pointed to it, and we were just screaming hysterically looking like complete asses until we ran back to the main path. There was a castle there too, which was decidedly less scary. Then we went to a cave, which was cool, and an old tomb that was sort of mini-stonehenge, in this field of weird wavy-shaped rocks, emerald grass and huge like chasms in the ground. And I was thinking, this is where leprechauns live.

I went to Belfast too, to see Laura. It was so great. I liked Belfast - didn't see too much touristy stuff, since it was only one night. But we went out with a lot of her friends from school, who were all from different countries. The thing about Belfast that stuck out in my mind the most was that the church clergy came out at 2am and served all the drunk people in the streets tea and biscuits. They seemed to really enjoy it. It seemed to be so typically Irish - it was great. We also saw two women assaulting each other in a restaraunt, that was funny.

The other thing I did in Ireland was meet my Irish family. My dad called and said I had family, an aunt's cousin's cousin I think? So I called them up. The conversation went like this:

me:"Hi...I'm Jess. I'm from Boston. I'm related to Marion." (Pause)

woman:"Okay? Hi."

me:"I'm in Dublin. Uhhh."

woman:"Well, want to come over?"

So I did. And I'm so glad I did. I met my two, um, cousins? One was 18, she had her prom the next day and had had this hilarious unfortunate spray tan experience right before I got there, so her skin was green, and her friend's. The other girl was about 24, and was sooo sweet, and gave me lots of travel advice. They were babysitting a two year old neighbor, who was soo cute. The mom, Breida, was very sweet, and she made me a great roast for dinner, with apple tart. It was awesome. But the best was the dad, Kieran. He told me stories about our family at Ellis Island and the ones who had stayed in Ireland. They talked to me for hours about my family and America and what school and work were like there, and actually invited all of us back and said they'd show us around! They want to come visit too. At the end, they all hugged me and gave me money for the bus. Kieran gave me all these great tshirts and everything and waited for the bus with me, and when I left, he patted me on the head and said, "You're a good girl." They reminded me of my family. Except Irish. I wanted to like, move in with them. I'm SO GLAD I went to meet them; they were great.

Last thing: I lost my North Face jacket (super expensive) in the airport on the way home. I thought it was gone for good; I thought someone had stolen it. But someone turned it in. They TURNED IT IN. I knew Ireland was lucky.

So anyway this is the longest blog ever. But basically, the point is, I had a great time. And it wasn't because I saw every touristy thing there or went everywhere. Lots of kids here got caught up in visiting about five cities over break, and none of them had a good time. I felt lucky. I found the best times were meeting up with my friends, meeting my family, pub basements, strangers who wanted to have conversations - basically, the people really made the vacation. On the way home, instead of taking a train overnight, I booked myself a nice hotel room. I relaxed. On the train home from Milan, I met lots of kids and talked to them on the train for hours. I think, up until now, I've been a little bit caught up in going to see as many places as I can. I think that, from now on, I'll learn to relax, look around, and talk to people, because that's really the point of traveling.

Cheesy.

That's all. If you made it through that entire thing, congratulations.

HI MEG!!!!!(shoutout!) I MISS YOU!