ireland is colder than florida

Katie and I arrived safe in Dublin on Sunday and met up with the girls from NYC; Lisa, Amy, Ann,Laura and Lauren whose actually not American but from some horrible place called Manchester, gooo France!



So far I have learned that Irish men cannot handle their liquor and they all want to marry you. We got picked up almost immediately by the table of boys next to us so I challenged Dave to a chugging contest. The loser had to take their shirt off and run around the bar quacking like a duck. Who do you think won?



It was hilarious and the bartender wasnt even going to kick us out until he asked Dave to return his shirt to his body and got told to 'feck off'.



The next day we headed to the Guiness Factory then took a horse drawn carriage back to Temple Bar and when we ran out of cheesy touristy things to do we headed to the pub, cause really what else is there to do in Dublin!





Who gave the blondes the map??











Tuesday we rented two cars, the one I'm driving we call the Cuisenart because its tiny and silver and when it reaches speads over 50 k's an hour it shakes so violently I practically cannot hold the stearing wheel.

We headed south to County Tipperary and visted The Rock of Cashel. Its a ginormous limestone rock with an immense castle and graveyard on top. The views were amazing.









The driving, although very frightening, is gorgeous. We stop along the way to take pictures of the beautiful scenery, which will put us in Shannon by next month since everything is so fucking beautiful.





Until that is we got to a waterfall in Killarney National Park and the sun dissapeared and it began to viciously hail for some ungodly reason.



We made the long haul over to Glengarrith and had an entire floor of a hostel to ourselves where we proceeded to drink wine by the gallons and piss off the people on every other floor.

After Glengarrith we drove up to Killarney in County Kerry were we are staying until tomorrow. And you'll be happy to hear we have actually been quite active, sure we're still in the pub everynight but when in Rome!

Lauren and Ann came down with a cold which may or may not have been caused by the Super Virus I have been harvesting since New Zealand. The rest of us went horseback riding, it was so fun but muscles in my thighs that have never ever been used before are now screaming at me.







Today we spent the day as cheesy tourists again and hired a tour bus to drive the Ring of Kerry, stopping along the way to see panoramic views, stone churches, and beautiful lakes all of which would have been amazing if it werent 30 degrees and raining sideways.

Typical Irish house 100 years ago which was ironically much nicer than the hostel we are in at the moment:



On the bus someone thought it would be funny to scrape letters off the window, creating 'Virgin Exit' instead of 'Emergency Exit'. The girls got a giant surprise when I asked, what do you think it means, why would they have an exit for virgins? I literally thought their heads would fall off laughing at me.



Guess I'll have to find another way out!

-Posted by Tracy

I was there too!!!!

If you’ve read the blog lately, you might think that Tracy’s the only person who’s done anything over the last week and a half, while I dropped of the face of the planet, but my parents actually kept me so busy and entertained that I just haven’t had the opportunity to see a computer for quite some time. While I had to go an entire week without saying the word “fuck” or drinking more than a pint a day (it’s possible I lost 10 pounds while hanging out with my parents, who knew that beer was bad for you?), I actually had a phenomenal time in Scotland with the folks.

We started out at the heart of Edinburgh- a former client, Kathleen, contacted her brother living in Edinburgh, and he offered his flat for our use, in Advocate’s Close at the heart of the Royal Mile:


Within 2 minutes of arriving, we met our first bagpiper (he's clearly thrilled about the photo op):


Lee, my client's brother, arranged for the most amazing 3-day tour of the highlands. We started out at a whirlwind tour of castles, our first stop being the Blackness Castle, where my father got to experience the closest thing to childhood since we dragged him to Disneyland as children:


We also stopped at Stirling Castle:


And Doune Castle, which, if you're a Monty Python fan, you may recognize:


It was the scene of many a "Search for the Holy Grail" scene, including the famous French Soldier scene. I of course got into the spirit (horrifying some French photographers standing near us, waiting to take some artsy-fartsy photos of the turrets):


And even my mom and dad couldn't help but channel some inner Monty Python:


The next day, we sought out Nessie by trekking up to Loch Ness. On the way, we saw some of the most spectacular sights, including a stop to view Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK:


At Loch Ness, we did a tour of Urquehart Castle, which apparently was blown up by its last known inhabitants so that no one else would take it:


And had the best Scottish meal ever at Moulin Hotel, where we all threatened to eat all of each other's meals, they were that good (dad with venison, me with lamb, and my mom with steak pie, which I believe she enjoyed 5 nights in a row while we were in Scotland):


We really lucked out with the most spectacularly sunny, beautiful weather the entire week, so took advantage by taking our third day out in the highlands to get truly off of the beaten track. We drove to Loch Awe:


And even saw a "heeland coo" (highland cow, the hairiest beast on the planet!- insert your own dirty joke here) on the way:


Then decided to break from our designated path and turn on to a single track road, which ended up being a real highlight for all of us. The views were spectacular the entire way:


And we ended near Loch Avich as the sun was setting:


After my parents left, Tracy and I spent a few more days at her aunt and uncle's (that's where the posts about our inevitable wedding ceremony occurred) near Dumfries before spending the final night in Edinburgh back at Lee's flat. He joined up with us, Graham and El for some drinks...which turned into many more drinks, which did lead me to try to use his house keys to break into the door NEXT to his apartment 3 hours before we had to be up for our flight, but we made it safely somehow to Ireland, where we met up with Lisa, Laura, Ann, Amy and Lauren.

We're all now in Dublin, of course doing our best to behave as perfect angels and not at all living up to the stereotype of Loud Americans (HAHAHAHAHA) before we head out to explore the south and west of Ireland. We've already taken a million photographs (involving tiger imitations, topless Irish men, the Guinness brewery, Jesus, nameless Egyptians with Irish accents, anger at boring Italian man, Lisa and Laura refusing to stoop to our level, looking like tourists, and actually being massive tourist tools in horse-drawn carriages) but all of those will likely have to wait until we return to New York.

The trip is nearing its -God, I can't believe I'm saying this...wait while I cry for a minute...

...

...

...

...

nearing its end...

so I'm pretty sure Tracy and I will not be spending any time over the next week sitting at internet cafes, unless we do the very last day after everyone else has left.

Most likely, though, this means that the next time we post, it will be to update on Ireland, but we will physically be back in New York by that point. We'll fly back on the 1st of April, and we hope everyone who can make it will be at Slainte Saturday night (the same location we had our farewell party) in New York.

Can't wait to see you all in person and see what you've all been up to...you've heard all our stories, so we'll just sit silently in the corner and catch up on your stories.

Thanks for reading, and hope you're all ready to buy us pints, because we're offially poor as shit! Know anyone who wants to offer us jobs?

-Posted by Katie

last night in dumfries

Rory and Annette took Katie and I to a Tibetan Monastary called the Kasye Samye Ling.

Statue:


Katie giving a prayer:


Katie and Annette in the peachtree greenhouse:


Peacock:


Calum took me to St Micheals Church and Robbie Burn's grave:






Waugh grave:


Katie and I finally bit the bullet and put all the rumors to rest:





Our last night in Dumfries we had a bit of a family reunion. All the crazy scotts came round.







Auntie Ella dn Uncle Rory:


Cousins Ian, Jill and Duncan:


Annie's friends, havnt seen them since I was 14, unreal:


Cousine calum:


Cousin Jill, crazy pic: