Saturday was what you could call an excellent day. We woke up and Matt and I bought waterproof pants for hiking club/ring of Kerry trip. Then we went to the Iona society. Today’s trip left at 10am for the town of Youghal and then Ardmore. We went to Youghal first, and it was amazing. If I ever get to live in Ireland, I want to live in a town like Youghal. The air was clean. The water was not full of crap and garbage like in Cork. The town had a main street with a ton of shops. We had a tour guide talk to us about stuff, but I cannot remember too much of what she said. These stupid dumb Valley girls that were on the trip also kept talking, taking pictures of each other doing ridiculous High School Musical type poses, and generally making asses of themselves. They showed little respect to the people saying interesting information. I myself tried hard to pay attention and understand the heritage nature of the trip, but it was difficult! It was our first excursion into Real Ireland! The Ireland I had pictured all along and had thought didn’t exist when I stepped off the bus on January 2nd. Walking around Youghal, we learned about some bastard Brit that was mean to the Irish. Then we went to Ireland’s oldest church that still functions! It was amazing to see the graveyard, with all of the Celtic crosses and all of the history. Youghal was a medieval town, and it made me feel alive and interested. I took like 300 pictures on this day trip. I could have spent 5 more hours taking pictures of the graves and church, but we only had a hour and a half. Then, we went to Ardmore. I really enjoy driving through the Irish countryside. We saw cows and sheep and goats and everything! The Irish drive incredibly slow! I bet Ardmore was about 15 miles away from cork, but it took 45 minutes to drive. I think the top speed is 60km. Then, we got to Ardmore. Here, we saw a beach and cliffs! I squealed. We walked around the cliffs and all over them. Some bolder people in the group found a hobbit hole in a cliff, but I didn’t get a chance to go in. Matt also almost lost his camera! Also, I was starting to resent the rest of the group (besides us), which as i mentioned consisted of idiotic girls. The total touristy and stereotypical spoiled rich white girls would imitate whatever we did! If we climbed up a hill, they would be like “ZOMG let’s get a picture of us running up the hill like they did!” One example of why i hated them: as we walked up the road, there was a very touristy anchor on the side. It had benches around it and was meant for tourists. I said “Not gonna take a picture of that touristy anchor” and immediately, a dumb girl behind me said “OMG let’s take a picture of that anchor it’s so cute!!” I hate rich girls. But we had to keep going and put up with their vacuous comments to see the thing Iona wanted us to, naturally. The end of the walk was at this cool old church that was 8th century. It had “ohm” or something writing on it from pre-Christians. I wish I could have retained more information about the stuff, but it was all so cool I just wanted to photograph like a Korean tourist! Seriously, Korean tourists are everywhere. They take pictures like a chain smoker; one right after another. Of everything. I mean, I did take a picture of a pile of horse shit today, but the Koreans would have taken at least 3 of it! (With different exposures and ISO). Maybe that is a tad racist, but it is true. Anyway, the walk around the cliffs was so damn refreshing! There was wind, and ocean breeze, and the sun was low in the sky. It was perfect. I can’t believe we only shelled out 5 Euros for that trip. I finally got to experience the Ireland that I dreamed about, and I cannot wait to go see other parts of the country. The End.
Then later, Matt and the two Hannahs and I fried up some potatoes, onions, garlic, and ground beef and had a feast. It was wonderful. I went to bed, due to getting up early for hiking on Sunday, and Matt, Andy, Chelsea, and Mattie went to the pub and talked to Tom Barry*. Shit, I missed it again.
*Tom Barry is this old drunken Irishman that Matt and Andy discovered who is hilarious. Read their blogs for more detail.
Well Sunday sure started off with a bang! Andy and I left at 7:30 for the hiking club. I was concerned about being in good enough shape to climb the Paps, and that i overpacked. On the way there, we walked by this white building. I saw a dark object and did a double take. I picked it up, and it was an Iphone! Whoa! It had almost no battery and was coated with ice. Some poor soul had lost their 300 dollar phone! I put in in my bag, and we decided to take it to leeside. If we left it there, it would have been stolen. So we get to the place where the hiking club meets, and there are about 30 people there. Then the leader comes and says the bus got snowed in, so the hike is canceled! Damn! I went to bed early and missed Tom Barry for no reason. So we walked back to leeside. I defrosted the phone, and waited for someone to call. The phone was password protected, so we could not find the contacts list and call “Mom”, who had tried to call twice during the night. I waited and waited, and eventually got a call on the phone! It was someone who sounded Spanish! I figured it was n exchange student that was drunk and stupid. I told them that we could meet at the north gate of UCC at 11:30 and they could get the phone. Well I walk there and the person waiting to pick it up is a middle-aged Irishman! Guess I was off on that one. He said that it was his son’s phone that I found. His son was partying at a club last night, when someone spiked his drink with poison! The kid had to be rushed to the hospital and was currently there, recovering. Someone had jacked his phone when he was collapsed on the ground! Luckily the thief must have gotten discouraged by the password and thrown the phone on the windowsill, and then the rest is history. The Irishman sounded nervous the whole story and I would be too if my son was poisoned. He thanked me very much for being a good person, and said “have a drink on me” and gave me ten Euro. I shook his hand and walked away feeling pretty happy, and thankful that I could help. So the story turned out to have a happy ending. If I wouldn’t have gone to the bus stop before everyone else was awake, the kid’s phone would have been stolen again, and probably not returned. The End.
