Weekend Away.

If you were driving down the street in Dublin last Friday morning, you probably would have seen a group of 10 tired girls lugging suitcases to a bus station more than a mile away. We never looked more American. After finding our way to the bus stop, we began our travel to Cork, a city in the southern part of Ireland.

The bus ride was beautiful. It was really refreshing to see the green country side, and we were lucky to have a perfectly sunny day. There were so many instances on the bus ride where I saw things that were "SO Ireland." I even said it out loud once and these Irish girls laughed at me. Oh well, it was exciting to finally be seeing the beautiful Irish countryside (full of sheep and old things.)

We made it to Cork, and discovered that the city is a lot like Dublin. Our hostel was only a 10 minute walk from the city center and so we were in a great location. The hostel experience was not as bad as I expected. It was a lot like camp. 10 bunk beds in a room. They even gave us toast for breakfast, which I managed to catch on fire Saturday morning. (Note: Do not put your toast through the toaster twice.)

Friday night we met up with my friend Andrew who graduated from high school with me. He is studying abroad in Cork and introduced us to his friends and showed us the Cork night life, it was great to see a familiar face! Saturday morning we took an hour long bus ride to this fishing town on the coast called Kinsale. Being there was like being on vacation. It was the most beautiful day and we walked around taking hundreds of pictures and just enjoying the sun. We ate lunch at this great restaurant right on the water. Once again I felt like I was on vacation. Later that evening we ordered pizza in the hostel living room (which was actually quite cozy) and made friends with other American students also studying in Dublin. I also got to talk to the guy who saved the hostel from burning down by putting out my toast that caught on fire. He was quite the hero.

Sunday morning we headed to the town of Blarney to visit the castle and kiss the stone. Kissing the Blarney stone was cool, but definitely an overrated experience. Hopefully I didn't contract too many diseases. We ate another great lunch in Blarney then headed back to Cork and finally made our way home to Dublin. It was such a great weekend and there were so many moments where I couldn't believe that this was my life.