July 2-3

alright i feel like i have a ton to tell everyone. ill just start and keep going. one thing that i mentioned earlier is that there are a billion sheep and cows everywhere!! and i started to notice that some of the sheep were blue and then others were red etc. so we asked about it and we learned that that is how they mark their herds and tell the difference between the different herds. they spray paint them...kind of funny.

also yesterday we went on a very beautiful drive called the ring of kerry. it was about a 5 hour drive but very worth it. there were some parts that were so different that the typical ireland that you would imagine. some of it even reminded me of Utah with lakes and pine trees. there was one part that was so cool. it was very foggy but still beautiful. i will include a picture. also while on the bus the bus driver was trying to teach us some Gaelic. the only words i can remeber are "slawn" which means goodbye, "falta" which means welcome, and Dia gwit which means God be with you. the culture here is so interesting. during the drive we stoped to eat and had mushy peas which i guess is a typical irish dish. it was good, it just tasted like pea soup.

today we drove for a long time to dublin, but on the way we made a few really cool stops. first we stoped at teh blarney castle which was awesome. it was amazing and we climbed the 100 stairs to the top and we all kissed the stone. it suposedly is good luck... i guess after this last year of my life i could use some good luck haha. this castle was built in the 8th century. it is amazing that it is still standing. then after that we went to st. patricks cathedral ( i am not sure if that is what it was called) but it was probably the coolest castle we have seen so far. there were grave stones all over and there was a lot of history that you could read about. there were sacraficing alters and ancient paintings all over that they are trying to preserve. it was located up on a hill and it looked over what everyone would picture as typical ireland. also the town that it was in used to be part of the castle. i thought it was really amazing to see ancient ruins right next to newer buildings. i will include a picture.

finally we arived at dublin and now we are at a pub that has free wifi and once again we are all taking full advantage of it. our hostel here is really cool. i am pleasantly surprised with how nice hostels are. i think that they get a bad rep but really i have felt very safe and comfortable in them. one funny story though: last night i got up at about 2 am to go to the bathroom and i got locked out of the hostel. i tried knocking for about an hour but nobody heard me. so finally i sat down outside the door and just waited for someone to come out. luckily it wasnt too long haha. but it was an adventure.