Thursday, December 5, 2013

50 Shades of Green

Earlier this summer, my friend and I decided that we had a serious need for a serious trip. 24 hours later we had booked our trip to Ireland. I had always dreamed of vising the Land of Green and soaking in every second of the cute accents, the endless pastures, and the grazing sheep. I'm happy to say that Ireland definitely didn't disappoint. Here are a few highlights from my fabulous trip:

1. The Irish people are nothing short of wonderful. Upon my arrival, I expected a plethora of gingers dressed in green plaid to greet me with a jolly sounding, "Top o' the mornin' to you!" Definitely was disappointed with this one. Despite their reputations, I found the Irish people to be very quiet and simple people who were extremely friendly and willing to help. Most people seemed to be rather Americanized, though we did notice some distinct trends. First, you'll be able to spot an Irish guy really easily because they all wear the same uniform of gray sweatpants, Adidas jacket, and gym bag (see below).
The Irish girls seemed to be really into the trend of wearing tights with short shorts on top. I think they should seriously rethink this. The group of people that totally lived up to their stereotype were the old men. Their newsie caps were snug on their heads as they bobbed down the street with a cane. Could they be any more adorable?

2. People always say that they food is awful in Ireland. So yeah, I guess if you hate potatoes, cream, butter, beef from the biggest cows I have ever seen, and the best bacon of your life, the food would suck. With the exception of the black pudding (look it up, just the thought of it makes me stomach churn), the food was delightful.
 I also think I need to make a special mention of quite possibly the best thing I have ever eaten. You see, my friend and I are big fans of the film Love Actually. In this movie, there is a scene where a chick is offering up a piece of her banoffee pie. We were on a serious mission to find this pie. After going from pub to pub we were finally successful. The graham cracker crust, toffee, whipped cream, and bananas were a lot like heaven. Clearly the Irish coffee helped too :)

3. As most people know, my Asian genes don't exactly allow me to be much of a drinker. However, you can't go to Ireland and not have a pint of Guiness. I don't feel that I'm exaggerating when I say that the Guiness I drank in Ireland was literally the best beer I have ever drank in my life. The best part was that you can order a mini glass! It's like they knew I was coming.

4. Driving in Ireland is a real treat. Lucky for me, my sweet friend managed to drive the whole time while I was in charge of navigation. I'm sure you're thinking, alright, we get it, it's hard to drive on the left. This is true, though my friend owned the driving and even parallel parked on our first night (see proof below)
 But what you may not realize is that Ireland's nickname is The Land of Roundabouts. You see, outside of the city there are no stoplights or stop signs, only roundabouts...which go clockwise by the way. It's a bit nerve wrecking to read your Google Maps directions and see, "Continue straight through next 8 roundabouts, then take the 4th exit." Wait, what? Also, there are typically no street signs. I'm sure the truck drivers got a kick out of us cringing at them as they passed us, our bodies leaned as far to the left side of the car as possible as if this will help us not get hit on what can barely be called a two lane road. Let's just say it was an adventure that tried our patience.

5. Because much of our travel was done across the Irish countryside, we were constantly coming across sheep and cows. You hear about the sheep as being typical parts of the scenery and I found myself constantly shouting, "Sheep!" at just about every animal I saw. But about half the time I was wrong, because they were in fact cows. These were literally the biggest and furriest cows I have ever seen in my life. Apparently they are called Kerry cows and can only be found in Ireland. They make great ice cream too.

6. Before I left for our trip, my mom asked what we were going to see. From my one hour of research, I determined that our trip would pretty much consist of churches and castles. I think that maybe it is a requirement of every town to have these two things. What was most impressive about these buildings was that a. St. Mary is a really big deal and b. Ireland has such a longer history than we do in America. We saw so many that I have no idea what their names are, but they were impressive and fun to explore.

7. Everything in Ireland is beautiful. I was originally nervous that we'd miss out on the fields of green because we were traveling during the winter, but luckily Ireland stays green all year round. My three favorite things that we saw were:
The Long Room at Trinity College
Blarney Castle & Gardens
The Cliffs of Moher
I know these things are all very famous and everyone talks about them, but there is good reason for that. They are amazing.

So there in a nutshell is my journey through Ireland. I always feel so blessed to have traveled to so many places, and I'm already looking forward to my next trip. Who knows where we'll end up the next time we get bored!