Moral of the Story: A Big City is a Big City

Well, my trip to Ireland went well, with few complications. Ok, so that sounds like something a doctor would say after a birth, but anyway. We got to the airport by the train and then waited there until about 8 when our plane left. I didn't sleep any because I have a hard time falling asleep when there is noise and light, and there was an abundance of both there. On top of that I had started to get a cold. I got some Sudafed at the airport and started taking that, so I got a little better, and I took it throughout the trip. At this time I also realized that I had forgotten my camera, so I would have to rely on the pictures of friends. It was a short flight, just a little over an hour, and then we were in Dublin. Since we were an international flight we had to go through the whole customs and passport check, so that took a few extra minutes. We then got a cab to the hotel but we weren't able to check in for a few more hours. So we left our bags there and so the town of Dublin. We ended up staying in the city for a few hours, just basically looking around, and we didn't find much. As a city, it was basically any big city. I'm not saying that to insult anyone's city, I'm just saying that you can see similarities in human behavior and planning. The similarities of cities that are thousands of miles apart just goes to show you that at the core, humans are all the same. Once we got done with our city-exploration, we went back to the hotel because it was past the time that before which we couldn't check in. We then all got showers and took about a 2 hour nap. After that we were going to go back in town to eat, but we waited for the bus for a while and it didn't come. We didn't want to wait anymore, so we just went back to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel's restaurant. It was fairly expensive, so we didn't do that again. It would have been the equivalent of about $20 for a bowl of pasta and vegetables. Then we went to bed, and I had no trouble falling asleep then. We got up to go a little after 7, because we were hoping to catch a 9 or 9:30 train to Cork. Ange, one of the girls that I was with, wanted to go to another town called Waterford to check out the crystal factory that they have there. Dani and Brandon didn't want to go, so we split up and me and Ange and Lisa went to Waterford and Dani and Brandon went to Cork on a round trip ticket. We said that we would meet up at the rail-station in Cork to go to Blarney Castle together. However we didn't know the times for the castle, nor did we set a meeting time, so we were basically in the dark. None of us thought of it, though, at the time. Waterford was great, I'm really glad we went. We looked around and got some touristy things at the shops. We had dinner at a small sandwich shop, which had great food and reasonable prices. We didn't take a tour of the crystal factory, we just went to the gift shop. The crystal was amazing; they had everything from bowls to wine-glasses, and it was all moderately priced, and somehow tax-free, which even held up at the check-out. It was all very pretty. We were then going to get a train to go to Cork, but the train station told us that there was no good way to Cork from Waterford, so we would be doing a lot of switching, and thus a bus from Waterford to Cork would be a better idea. We took the bus, the only problem being that Dani and Brandon were expecting us at the train station, but we figured it wouldn't be a big deal to just go and find them. The bus ride took about 2 1/2 hours, but it was more than worth it. The views alone were amazing, with huge rolling hills in the distance and green everywhere that you looked. We even got to see the ocean for a brief time. It was very pretty. We then got to Cork and asked a man working at the bus station when the castle closed. We thought he said 7, and it was about 6:40, so we had to make a decision. Through train times and the power of deduction we figured out that Dani and Brandon would've been there about 3 hours before we got there, and so most likely they would've already gone to the castle, because being on a round trip ticket they would have to go back or they would waste their money. So we left and went on a bus to Blarney, hoping to get into the castle. It turned out that the castle closed at 6:30 and the last tour had been at 6. So we missed it completely. We then had to figure out what to do from there. We figured that it would be silly to go back to Dublin, as we were already there, so that we could just see the castle in the morning and then leave. So we went to the rail station to find Dani and Brandon and talk things over with them. We looked around at the station and couldn't find them, and then realized that the last train for Dublin had left about a half hour before we had got there. So we made the executive decision to find a bed and breakfast and just sleep there for the night and see the castle in the morning. Then we would go back to Dublin to meet back up with Dani and Brandon. We found a fairly cheap place on the second try. We went into one and the price was more than we wanted to pay, but the second one was a better offer. So we got the key and then went in town to get some food. We were starving and so after looking around for a short while we settled on a pizza place. After we ate we found and internet/phone cafe where you would pay for said usage by the half hour. We looked up the number for our hotel and left a message for Dani and Brandon that we were ok and would see them tomorrow. We then went back to the bed and breakfast and went to bed. The castle opened at 9, and we got breakfast from the bed and breakfast (hence the name, go figure), so we got up in time to eat a little and then go to the castle. It was great, my favorite castle out of the 3 that I've seen. I think what I liked about it was that it was basically ruined; there was no roof, and the rooms where the floors would've been wood were gone. The others castles had lots of reconstructed stuff, and while I'm sure they looked as they would have in their time, it was just nice to see a castle that hadn't had anything done to it. You could see how time had affected it. The area around the castle was also very beautiful. We didn't have much time because we had to check out by 11. So we went through the castle somewhat quickly, but still getting to see what we wanted. At the top was the famous Blarney Stone. For those of you who don't know what it is (I didn't, I just knew that it was some rock that you were supposed to kiss), legend goes that the king of the castle had a stutter. One day he saved a witch from drowning, and she said if he would kiss a certain stone at the top of the castle that he would lose his stutter and speak normally. It is said to have worked, and so you are supposed to kiss the stone to speak better. I don't think it worked. We then went in town to try and get a taxi back, which took longer than we expected. So once we got the taxi it was basically 11, so we were afraid that we would be charged extra for the room. Also we had found out that the train for Dublin left at 11:30. So we were crunched for time. Our driver was really nice and was driving faster than he probably should have been to get us there. When we got to the bed and breakfast Lisa and I ran up to the room to get our stuff while Ange went to the train station to buy our tickets. The guy at the desk didn't act like anything was wrong, so as far as I know our slightly late check-out wasn't a problem. We then jogged across the street to the station and made it on our train with just a few minutes to spare. When we got back to the hotel Dani and Brandon weren't there, but they had left notes telling us that they would be back at about 5:30 to meet us for dinner. So we got cleaned up and tested until they got back. We then got both stories, and luckily everything had worked out. They had gotten to see the castle the day before, like we thought. We then went out for dinner with plans to take a Ghost-bus tour of Dublin, where you get on a double-decker bus and drive around and are told about the supernatural history of Dublin. Well it just so happened that as we were looking for somewhere to eat we came across said bus, and they were getting ready to leave for the tour. So we got on and paid ad decided to eat dinner afterwards. It was an interesting tour, but it was more just a guy telling stories. We got off the bus in a few places to check things out, but that wasn't really all that exciting. I'm not really a believer when it comes to ghosts. I certainly believe in a supernatural world, but not one populated by translucent people. It's much scarier than that, and that's why ghosts would be the last thing I'm worried about when it comes to the supernatural. But anyway, it was a little expensive, but they stories were very interesting. We then got food at a food-court type place and then went back to the hotel. We had to get up very early to get to the airport on time, 4:30 in the morning. Our flight left at 6:30, so that was a very early morning. We got back just fine, and when we got to Grantham we had lunch/dinner at a pub called the Whetherspoon, which we lovingly call the "W", which is very reasonably priced and has great food. We then made it back to the manor and basically did nothing productive for the rest of the day. All in all, Ireland was beautiful, and the weekend was great.