Only in Ireland would you find Vikings and Leprechauns on the same street as Molly Malone: 18 - 24 Feb

I feel like my life is starting to sound boring and repetitive... I mean, it is kind of repetitive because I go to the same classes every week, usually go out on the same nights, haven't done anything in a couple weekends. I'm trying to make it sound more interesting by only feeding you the fun bits. And embarrassing, and unusual. So here's a fun bit. I'm going to tour Europe in June. Yep, seven countries in ten days. Let's see, we're starting in London, going through Amsterdam, couple stops in Germany, one in Austria, one night in Venice, two in Switzerland, and two in France to end in Paris. It'll be good fun since I'll be with a tour group for 18-35 year-olds only. Second interesting bit. Spring apparently starts the first of February in Ireland. I didn't really believe it until this week. you know there are always weird weather patterns this time of year, fluctuating between warm and freezing. Usually some snow in there. So February was back and forth between warm and cool; I'm not going to say cold cause I don't think it got below freezing more than once or twice. But I am now convinced it is spring because Tuesday and Wednesday were so absolutely beautiful. I almost skipped to class on Tuesday, but refrained. On Wednesday, being the second gorgeous day in a row, I had to wear something springy. So I pulled out the frilliest skirt I own, and got away with wearing it all day, mostly because I was just bouncing around the apartment. I only have one class on Wednesday to which I think I did actually skip. And being in such a good mood I skipped to the Chaplaincy and signed up for a retreat over the weekend in Ardmore, which is right on the seacoast.

Thursday wasn't quite as beautiful as the two days before, but there was more to that than the weather. The retreat that I had gotten so excited about, was cancelled. Again because of lack of interest. I'm starting to see a trend... I took this cancellation a bit harder than the last one because 1. I had signed up early and 2. I was really looking forward to it. And of course I got the call about the retreat just a few hours after Jemma and Jocelyn had offered to book me into their hostel in Dublin over the weekend. I thought for sure I would have to spend another weekend in the apartment, which I had resolved not to do for another weekend in a row. That night was a lot of fun though. We decided to go out but never actually made it. We played too many card games beforehand. I'm sort of glad we didn't go out because I had early morning dance class. I was a bit queasy at first, but I made it through just fine. Partly due to the fact that I already had learned the steps we were covering that day because so many people had missed the week before. Basically it was a review.

At some point during the day I resolved to go to Dublin. I wouldn't get to spend much time with Jemma and Jocelyn because they had a climbing competition, but I was going to go. Somehow I managed to get into the same hostel, different room, of course, since they booked with the mountaineering club. And it turned out that they weren't doing the competition on Saturday, so I had some friends with which to explore the city. Jemma already knew her way around and so we got to do some things that other tourists didn't know about. ... Like the Disney store. It was so hard to resist buying everything in the store, but I managed. Jemma walked out with a Simba pillow. After three trips in, she just had to buy something.
We saw a street band, quite good actually, and went for a walk in the park, where we found giant eggs. The person who finds all the eggs hidden across the city wins a diamond necklace. At least, I think that's what they would win. I was distracted by the snowflakes that were falling on us. After our day in town, we went back to the hostel to shower and relax before the rest of the climbers checked-in. After an eventful day, the best dinner is, of course, pizza! We ordered two giant pizzas, like 20 cm across or something like that. The box almost didn't fit through the doorway. They were huge!
And gone within minutes of returning to the hostel. The next morning I was on my own. Everyone was going to Awesome Walls to climb and train for the next weekend. Another competition. Since I'm not terribly athletic, I decided to do a walking tour of Dublin instead. So I wandered to the meeting point and realized I was almost an hour early. That was because I couldn't get Internet in the hostel and wasn't sure how long it would actually take to walk over. So I sat in Starbucks and enjoyed a hot chocolate. I also had the foresight to get a cinnamon roll for the bus ride home. The tour was interesting, saw a lot of things, heard a traditional Irish tale about the Land of Eternal Youth, which is essentially Heaven. Somehow I safely made it to the bus station. I missed it by one block, but that was because the street I was looking for wasn't labelled. The bus ride back was four hours, really long time to sit in one place. A bit boring too. But I had the chance to look over the brochures I had picked up at the hostel. Just different places that I thought maybe would be fun to see in April or May. You know, to get some ideas. At some point during the weekend, I decided to go to with the other girls on vacation over Easter. To start the study month off right, you know. So I booked Easter Day in Paris, then Brussels and Amsterdam for the rest of the week. I didn't book a flight back to Ireland from Amsterdam because I wasn't sure yet what I was doing with the rest of my month. I though maybe I would see some other things before going back to Cork. So as it stands, I'm in Amsterdam on the 5th of April but have no plans after that.