Paddy Hell-on-Wheels

I can't believe it's already Friday! I've been having a whirlwind of fun, especially traveling offically on my own to Dublin. I met people on the plane, in the airport, and I've been finding myself very comfortable with the people in my hostel.

I landed in Dublin just yesterday and finally found the hostel after asking not only another hostel (in poor taste? not sure, don't care...) but some other people on the street where the location was. After going around in circles for a while, I found it (the biiiiig reeeed banners gave away its location and I was feeling a little foolish). Check in was a breeze and I was feeling good. No one was in the room when I got there, so I decided to boldy go to the kitchen and meet some people.

...everyone was speaking French...

There was a group of teenagers and their chaperones in the hostel last night from France and it was really fun being able to talk with some of them, mostly their chaperones, not the crazy teenagers.

In any case, I met a girl named Maudelaine from Montreal (that's in Canada!) and she and I went to a grocery store down the street for dinner fixings. I was pretty hungry (ps, don't ever go shopping when you're hungry) so I got pasta, pesta sauce, yogurt, veggies, fruit and other assortments of food. Needless to say, I cooked a verrry mean plate of pasta for myself even Italians would be slobbering over.

Last night, I went out with a couple of French girls from the Lyon area and another guy from Germany (poor guy - not understanding much French) to a really famous bar called Temple Bar. It was fabulous. Smoky, but fabulous. The girls were sooo much fun - really outgoing and it was nice just to be myself. I had to be up by 6:00 this morning to go to a tour of the cliffs of Moher (prounounced more) so the late night was simply not the responsible choice, but it was what I will not refer to as the "holiday" choice. I did it because I'm on vacation.

In any case, the Paddywagon tour to cliffs of Moher was reeeeaaaallly early this morning, but I made it there on time. The cliffs themselves were amazingly beautiful, breathtaking and it was soooo neat to FINALLY see the ocean. Sad that I had to see it from the European side rather than the United States side, but I'm not judging.

However, the bus driver was crazy. We had a bus that was (apparently) big enough to hold a significant amount of people but juuuuuust little enough for the driver to think that it was meant for off-roading. Going over little bumps felt like mountains, and he seemed to be going well over the speed limit. It shouldn't be called Paddywagon but Paddy Hell-on-Wheels. "We shake life up". Anyway, I was feeling pretty nauseous for a lot of the ride, and was in some ways thinking the money I spent for the trip wasn't really living up to the hype, but that's okay. It was still an experience...

On the bus, I met a girl named Christine who was pretty neat. She's a conservation major at River Falls in Wisconsin and it was fun to see her excited about all the natural land forms we were seeing today.. On the ride back, I was paired up with a girl from Italy and she spoke broken English. She was very funny and was teaching me a little bit of Italian. Am now in love with languages and am thinking French will not suffice.

I think I have decided what I want to be for the rest of my life.. : a student.

Tomorrow I plan to see Dublin by foot as it is both at my pace of sight-seeing, WON'T be another bus, and is FREE! :) Later in the afternoon, I will be going to the Guiness factory that I've heard a lot of good things about. Not only will I be able to have a taste of the delightful brew, but I will also they have a 360 degree window of the view of Dublin, so I'll be able to take some pretty cool pictures, providing the weather doesn't stink as it has in both Scotland and Ireland since I've been here.

Not much more to say except that I'm really happy. It seems I have a new lease on life in the fact that I'm loving it over and over again seemingly every minute. Meeting new people, even if I know they're only going to be in my life for a day, an evening, a few hours, feels so incredible. It is fun to swap stories and laugh about traveling adventures. But for now, I'm going to go off and start creating some more.

Take care all and I hope this post finds you all happy and healthy!

Love, love, love,
Molly