sunrise in london

I watched the sun rise in London this morning. Yes folks. And not in the "got up early to do so" way. I had, in fact, not yet felt the warmth of my lovely hotel bed as the sun peaked its face over the horizon. I can not party like Londoners. It is too hard.

BUT backing up... Yesterday was spent walking around Temple Bar(the historic/ hopping district of Dublin.) As we walked along to Liffey (the river that runs through the heart of Dublin) I distinctly smelled beef jerky. This was not because there was beef jerky anywhere in the general vicinity. Oh no. My deductive reasoning skills concluded after a few moments that the smell was coming from the river. The smell was comforting, in a homey-makes-you-want-to-gag kind of way.

We got horrifically lost on the way back to the car... it was a race against time and the Dublin police force as our car was likely to be towed or booted if we did not make it back before the clock struck 3. Very dramatic.

But as I said, horrifically lost. We asked directions... a few times. The first time a lovely man on a bicycle told us to go to the 'op o' da s'reet n 'urn lef'. Got that? Yah, neither did we. Luckily,I finally figured out what he said. Unluckily, it was about a mile after where we were supposed to turn. Luckily, we had a map. Unluckily, my sister confused St. Patrick's for Christ Cathedral and we started walking towards the wrong giant stone structure. To be fair though, who would have thought that the biggest cathedral in town would be St. Patrick's (The Patron Saint of Ireland) when you were in the capital city... oh wait.

Anyway we finally made it back to Parliament Street where we had parked in the nick of time.

Note to Self: Look up the Prime Minister of Ireland so not to embarrass yourself even more by talking about "their queen". Stupid, stupid Jule.

Googling.... googling... googling.

And...

OK. There is a President and a Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland. Oh... and the President is a lady. HUZZAH! Now I will no longer embarrass myself whilst in Ireland. Thanks Google!!!

So finally, after all that excitement, got on the plane to London, checked into the hotel, then was manhandled into going out to a club with my sister.

Fun Fact: Men from London do not understand what " No" means, in a way that puts American men to shame. Also, if you say "No, Thank you." you might as well of said "Yes!"

So through out the night I was subsequently Russian, married and got really good at sneaking away. I don't think I can count how many times I said "Sorry, do not speak English" and quickly walked away and how many times that did not stop these men from their incessant need to tell me ALL about themselves.

Finally, the club closed, I enjoyed Chips & Cheese (YUM!) and next thing I knew...

I got up 4 short hours later and we spent the day touring Hampton Court. I got separated from the family and spent most of that time alone. Watched a joust with some horrible acting, contemplated demanding they let me play Anne Boleyn since the woman they had got knew NOTHING about her, and watched some reasonably decent sword fighting. After walking through the castle twice I just sat down and people watched until, by a stroke of luck, my family walked right by me. Lost them again while wandering through the rose garden, wondered how people survived before cell phones and realized that the last 4 day (of me being totally cell phone less) have been incredible drama free and relaxing... coincidence?

I am tired. I wish I was more clever today. I apologize.

and...

Crisis averted.

Extremely long entry to come but right now my mom is giving me the death glare because I am not packing. Nipping over to London tonight for a few days. I'm going to hang with King Henry and Queen Anne at Hampton Court tomorrow. I thought they were dead... shows what I know about English history.

yikes.

so... I MIGHT have left my visa papers in Texas.

Houston, we have a problem.

nun-sense!

Slept off my jet lagg after discussing the merits of the plays of Tennessee Williams with the concerguie, Patrick.
Started the day off right with a mug of Irish breakfast tea and a scone.
Oh yah, I ate a scone... none of those nancy "muffins" here.
Well, I am sure they have them but that is not as Irish as a scone.
Also, 'cupcakes' are called 'ice cakes'. Now you know.
They have big ones too.

Took our sweet time getting out today... which drove my sister crazy. We went to Clonmacnoise,
which for you non-ancient Catholicism fans is the site of the famous 11-century monastic ruins,
situated right smack in the middle of Ireland... on a prominent 'esker'. For you non-geology fans that is a giant continuous hill left by the last ice age. Ireland is making me really smart.
The ruins were abosolutely breath taking, if you like ancient Christian ruins. ( I do.)

Took a little hike down a country lane to the site of the 'Nun's Church'. The ruins were deserted because lazy American tourists don't want to walk down a country lane. They probably have never seen 'P.S. I Love You'. The lane did not have any attractive Irish men so maybe they were the smart ones... because it was cold.

But my sister and I took advantage of its deserted state and had a dance party then re-enacted a scene from 'The Karate Kid'. My mother was appauled and kept using words like "sacreligious'. I kindly informed her that God was going to see it anyway and it probably wasn't any worse than what the nun's did there. I mean, I know how nuns are, I have seen Sister Act (1 and 2).

It began to rain, so we made our way back to the main ruins.

Fun Fact: It rains in Ireland... a lot.

2nd Fun Fact: That is not true.

3rd Fun Fact: Ok, I lied, it is true.

Inside the warm Tourism Center I found a beautiful man. (I KNOW! I was pretty stoked.) I was JUST about to consider making polite, reserved flirtatous eye contact when my mom came in and RUINED EVERYTHING. I have discovered my worst embrassassing stories including males (foriegn or otherwise) ALL include my mother... coincidence... I no longer think so.

Drove around... a lot. Rained three or four more times. Saw a bakery in one of the towns. My mom and sister convinced me to jump out and go buy bread while they circled around.
I naively agreed, then stood on the street corner for the next 20 minutes waiting. It rained again. I was not a happy lady. At least 5 men spoke to me though so apparently 'pissed off drowned rat' is a good look for me.

Stopped by 'the shop' (Irish people have cute terms that make normal, boring things like 'grocery store' and 'gas station' sound awesome) and bought some cheese and Nutella for the bread (which I call Deserted Jule Bread). I had lots of Nutella. Deserted Jule Bread tastes best with nutella.

Took the back country roads back to Dublin. My favorite thing was to spot a ancient ruin then count how many seconds till I saw a petrol station. Its like the lighting/thunder game but SO much better.

I am slightly disappointed with Ireland though. I have been here TWO days and not ONE person has said 'Top of the 'morning'. They also don't sell Lucky Charms here. My family also seems dead set against me drinking whiskey. My mom said 'You drink whiskey better than any woman I know' like it was a bad thing.

Tomorrow we go to Kilkenny. I made a South Park joke. I could hear the crickets.

Also, I have learned that my 'Legendary' schtick isn't going to be funny here.
They say is 'le-gen-dre". So unfair. How am I going to make friends?!

Dublin's Fair City

So... I made it. I am safely in the hotel despite my mothers numerous attempts to kill me (which she cleverly described as "sight seeing" and "driving").

Note to readers: driving a stick shift when you haven't driven one in years does not become easier when concentrating on driving on a different side of the road and navigating in a strange city. Quite the opposite in fact.

I developed a case of car sickness heighten by a severe paranoia of on coming traffic.
Example A:
The Dubliners I have met so far were extremely kind and helpful, especially since one had to say to us " You know you are driving on the train tracks there, don't ya?". We, in fact, did not know this, as my mom was just trying to find something ( I wasn't quite sure what since every person she asked she seemed to be looking for something else) and I kept closing my eyes and praying that today would not be the day I died. But I digress...

Dublin is extremely overwhelming... but that could be the driving bit which I NEVER want to do again and my mom seems to think we will be doing tomorrow... negative ghost rider...the pattern is full.

I enjoyed some AWESOME Irish Soda Bread and a doughnut (Note to Taylor: SO much flippin' better here) and now am enjoying some Irish Breakfast tea (served with two sugars and milk... crazy Irish people). Mom is resting... I guess a 6 hour plane ride followed by at least 5 counts of attempted homicide can really take it out of you.

Amanda gets in in about 2 hours... I am hoping we just eat dinner and go to sleep because I am a zombie... but knowing Amanda she is going to want to go to a Pub.

Fun Fact: There are no pubs in Dublin.



2nd Fun Fact: The above fact is a lie.

My wit is slowly failing me. OH! When I got off the plane, not even having been in the country 5 minutes, I got yelled at for walking somewhere I wasn't supposed too. It was all " Welcome to Ireland... STAY IN THE BLOODY WHITE LINED AREA!" Also, I saw a leprechaun. Seriously. He was disguised as a normal person but he was a leprechaun. His human disguise was quite clever though. He was at least 6 foot and didn't really look like a leprechaun at all BUT he had some mad pointy ears, so I knew. I should have grabbed him by his beard and gotten his gold but since I had already gotten yelled at I figured adding "assault" to my indiscretions would not be a good start. On a completely unrelated note... the people outside my hotel room right now are speaking Gaelic. Just as normal as you please. Wicked.
Oh and this is my jet lag face:
And this made me think of home:

OK... that's all for now!

Dublin or Bust

My bags are over weight. I leave in 15 minutes. Stress does not begin to describe this feeling.
I have nothing else to write for now. Wish me luck!

obligatory "packing" entry

I have put off beginning this blog for a while. However, I leave bright and early tomorrow so it is probably time. I have been packing like a crazy person today and running around trying to tie up all the loose ends I have been ignoring for the last couple weeks.

Today is the first day of my senior year and the last Theatre Rally and I am missing it. It kind of makes me sad.

Anyway, my list is long so I will keep this entry relatively short. Tomorrow my mom and I are flying to Chicago then after a (hopefully) short lay over we are getting on the plane and arriving in Dublin around 8:30am on Wednesday morning. I can't sleep on planes so Wednesday will more than likely see an extremely grouchy Jule. BUT, I get to see my sister (who is meeting us there) who I haven't seen since April. :D

I hope to be good about blogging regularly about stuff people might actually care about. Feel free to comment, etc. and if you want me to send you a postcard Facebook or email me your address and I will do my best to send one.

That is all for now! Back to packing...