I have not written in a while, so I feel like I have quite a lot to talk about!

Last weekend I spent the weekend driving 8 hours on abus to Cork Irleand to see a traditional irish musicfestival, and the best part was, since one of my friends knew the band, we got to ride down on the bus with them!

The band was so wonderful! One of the happiest moments in my entire life, I think, was when I was riding the bus and saw rolling green hills in front of me and the band was practicing in the back of the bus. It was so beautiful. They practiced the entire ride down.

I included a video of them last week in my blog.

I stayed in a hostel for the first time, and it was so amazing! I met people from all over the world, and its acctually really nice! We played music and stayed up late visiting with everyone we met in the hostel.

The music festival was wonderful, there were tons on traditional irish bands playing, and I was surronded by southern irish people, and great music. I was with three of the good girl friends I met here too, so we danced away and had a great time.

The next day we explored the town of cork, its at the very southern tip of Ireland, and coleraine is at the very north. We went to the Market, which was full of every kind of meat, veggie, sweet, crafts, and food. There were people everywhere, and good smells took over. I got a piece of homemade chocolate.

We then went to Blarney Castle, it was the coolest castle I have been to! There were real rooms and it explained what the rooms were used for.We found a secret passage way( that we probably were not supposed to be exploring) that went all over the castle in a tiny tunnel.It was so neat! At the top there was the famous "blarney stone" you have to lean upside down (someone is there to help you) and kiss the blarney stone. If you kiss the stone you are supposed to have good luck for ever! I officially can say that I kissed the stone!

That night we had a get together in the hostel again, I taught one of the band members to do the southern american dance "shagging" and he taught me an irish jig. It was a really fun experience.

This past weekI went to an international friends meeting, where old irish women feed us irish food, and we get to watch movies or do fun thigns with international kids. I also got my "international family" which is a family that takes you home once a week or so to have dinner, hang out with there kids, get coffee and just experience how people here in Ireland live. It will also be good to have an older family to help me if I need help with anything!

I am getting so excited planning my spring break trip across europe. A group ofaround 5 or 6 of us will travel around europe! I am looking into the cheapest way to buy a euro rail pass as we speak! IM SO EXCITED

This weekend my friends from Ocracoke came to visit, because they were touring Europe. They had many great tips for me. When they were here we did a lot of touristy things, such as Musseden temple, and the rope bridge also. I was excited to have an excuse to be doing touristy things around here.

Im excited about the up coming week, and hope to be making lots of plans to travel around Europe even more!