Kilkenny SUNBURN and Cashel

We started the day perfectly! We slept in, then peacefully wandered the streets of Kilkenny. Everyone outside was really old, and had lived there their whole lives. This is because all of the young people were hung over and definitely still in bed. Kilkenny is known for it's pub life and drinking fun, and is a grand destination for bachelorette parties. Over half of the population is supposedly under the age of 25. We wandered over to St. Mary's church, then through the suburbs (we think) and back to a covered market. It was so sunny outside that we just had to sit at a cafe and just soak up the sun. We think I may have gotten a little sunburned. Impossible! I never sunburn! (unless I am idiotic and don't wear any sunscreen at Lake Powell......)

In the suburbs..

In the covered market. Notice the Ireland flag everywhere.

Then we hopped on our bus and went to Cashel, where we saw some old Cathedral ruins. So pretty looking over the Ireland countryside! It's ceiling was missing, but it was fun looking at more ruins underneath us. Nevermind that we spent 2.5 hours on the bus to this place from Kilkenny, 3 hours back to Dublin, then waiting in the airport for 2 hours, then our 1.5 hour flight, then .5 hour waiting for our bus and a 1 hour bus ride back to our flat. Aka hours of travelling that day, but still fun! (the pics all look the same and my hair is like a lion's mane nbd.)

a true IRISH ST. PATRICK's DAY

St Patrick's Day. Woke up, put on everything green including green shoes, shirt, jacket, bow, whistle, necklace, shamrock glasses, and tattoos, and also green eyeliner and shadow. We had blow thingies that make noise. We dyed our hair green. It wasn't until breakfast that we noticed I had put my tattoo on upside down bahahaha. Then we went out and celebrated with the parade that was seriously the strangest thing ever. Wild. Fun. Strange. There were drunks everywhere and green and cute kids and tons of people askin to get in pictures with us cuz we were legit. Seriously though, we were asked by so many random groups of people, old men, young men, etc to be in pictures with them! 

The actual parade was nothing like anything you would be expecting. It was completely like the director or creator of the parade was on crazy pills! Seriously, stilts, weird little children dancing, high school marching bands, stilts, black irishman dj's, chinese dances, flying animals, etc. So random!

Here was the BYU group that randomly assembled!

Elise & I. I love that dang whistle!

You know you wish you had shamrock glasses..

Noisy!! (like always..)

Looking down the street was a SEA of green!

Ash and I Rocked those glasses!

We had GREEN hair! Full out.

We all bought green shoes for 3 pounds! Brilliant!!

We all had our green makeup and tattoos!

Notice that we all have the same tattoos. Says, "Kiss me, I'm Irish!" ...Mine was upside down. Oops! But that makes it funnier, as if I had put it on drunk or something!

Just a bunch of green Cougars..

The other side of the parade's barricade. So green!

We ditched the parade early and went to some park in hopes to find the concert.

Failure. But the park was pretty!

Unfortunately, when we tried to get out the other side of the park, it was entirely closed off. Apparently, the cops only opened one entrance so they could check alcohol from getting inside. But we needed to get out That side so we could get to the carnival. so... we found a gate and hopped it! NBD. It was just way tall and there were cops everywhere! It's the tall black one in the background of this next picture.

But then we found the carnival! It looked so fun!

When we arrived in Kilkenny, we found this huge pile of kegs outside of a pub. Of course I would pick up one of the empty bottles of beer and pose with it. Sometimes I wonder what's going through my mind--now I look like a drinker.

They named lager after me!

And eventually we settled on an American restaurant for dinner so we could eat cheaply. Papa John's. So so good! I've only had it once before, but now I think I need to eat it more. Seven girls and two pizzas = fatfest. So much fun!

In Kilkenny, we arrived and there was some awful concert going on in the square where 13 year olds were singing Lady Gaga all screamy like a straight edge band. Ick! But our hostel was so so dang cute! The toilet seat may have been tilted and it was way ghetto in some parts, but it had free wifi for my iPhone! :D Victory!

Claddagh Rings + Carroll's

We went to a pub to eat lunch and went shopping and got our Claddagh rings and walked by the Trinity College and its church. And of course we found some St. Patrick's Day shakes. And went to Carrolls to find green things. Dinner- Irish pizza? Then back to Carroll's. Aka a day of prepping for St. Patrick's DAY and exploring Dublin.

We were getting the St. Patrick's Day FEVER. It was EVERYWHERE!!

Just eating lunch at yet another pub...

Carrolls. They had Carroll's on every street, on every corner. They had everything that you could ever imagine in GREEN inside! We went full out. I think we went into the Carrolls probably twenty five times over our three days in Dublin.

Our favorite part of that day was finding our Claddagh rings. They're the rings the Irish wear to show if their heart is taken or if they're single. I LOVE them! I found the perfect one with some Irish design on the band. It's BEAUTIFUL. I've got it pointing in to my heart, just like it should be. Google the rings, they're great!

Guinness BEER FACTORY

So we left the London Centre at three am so we could make it to the airport on time. We were dying! Especially because we didn't get to bed until one and had to wake up at two thirty. Do the math...... But I did sleep a bit on the bus, and was out cold on an airport bench for forty minutes. Victory! And then I was able to sleep on the airplane the entire time. We were sitting right by NAU's waterpolo team, but we were too tired to even look at them and their fit bods.

And then we got bagels and fruit smoothies and napped while we waited for the other half of our group on a different flight. This trip started off with naps galore! Then I slept all the way on the bus until the Guinness factory--the biggest tourist destination in Dublin. It's a beer factory and way cool. We learned all about beer and how it's made etc. My drinking IQ is 70% haha we took a test. We could have tasted the roasted barley if we had wanted. The end of the tour came with a pint of beer, but we were able to get soda instead. Hehe, a BYU drinking fest.

Here I am making some beer and working the machinery......

I rocked this quiz!

All passed out DRUNK! (or exhausted)

They gave us childrens' tickets so we could order a soda
instead of getting served a pint of Guinness.

Look how pretty Ireland is!

We were LOVIN our hotel!

Then we came to our awesome hotel and checked in, grabbed some food at the grocery store, then came back for eating and napping. It was so fun having a decent hotel again! Then we went and explored downtown Dublin and started buying green stuff for st Patricks day, and wandered around Dublin on our way to our pub for dinner. We ate dinner at the oldest pub in all of Ireland called the Brazen Head as a group. It's the oldest pub in Ireland. It was the best food I have ever eaten (well, with byu). It was like food at a big wedding dinner or a fundraiser meal. But they served us soup, our main course, irish apple pie (more like a custardy cobbler yummy) and mint tea. Haha I sound so grown up!

Then it was back to the hotel for reminiscing on favorite childhood tv shows. I didn't have much to contribute since I wasn't allowed to watch tv after school or Saturday cartoons until my piano was done, missin all the good shows. Haha, I had such a hard life.