I Unknowingly did Something ill-advised

That's a good alternate name for this blog if you think about it. I went to Northern Ireland.
When making this plan I didn't think twice, but aparantly the war thing that they had going on up there was not that long ago.
V was kind of surprised when I expressed my desire to go there, but they had all the coolest sounding tourist attractions. I can't be blamed if I knew absolutely nothing about Irish history, I'm an American and it's my right to be uneducated!
It turned out that transportation there was a little more difficult than I had imagined (another good alternate title). We arrived in Belfast on a bus that was two hours late, only to find that even if it had been on time we wouldn't have been able to go to the places we wanted anyway (Giant's Causeway and Kereck-a-rede bridge if you wanted to know) because those buses only go once a day. If you're going to visit Northern Ireland I can only recommend renting a car.
It turned out to be a pretty good day anyway though, even though they demanded we switch back to Pounds once we crossed the border. Belfast is a nice and modern city with a lot of history, plus we only saw two policeman armed with automatic weapons (the universal sign of war-torn-nes).
We got a bit lost, however, and wound up in kind of a bad neighborhood while trying to find the obligatory castle. We got back ok, but boy was that a lot of walking. Never found it, so no castle count this time. I can hear you frowning.
We even ate at an American chain restaurant, Maggianos, the first in all of Europe apparently. I exagerate only slightly when I say it was the best food I've eaten since I got here.

You'll Never Get ye Hands on me Lucky Cathedral!

St. Patrick's cathedral. Yes, THAT St. Patrick. Maybe this will help...
St. Patrick
Check out those flying buttresses. Those are some hott buttresses (big ups to my highschool history teacher for getting me to remember something like that after all this time).
What is it about Cathedrals is it that fills me with a sense of awe? Maybe it's that they always looks like they're about to crush you.
Not getting to look at the inside of things has been kind of a theme on this trip- I've not been inside any castles and the only way I would have gotten into the Cathedral would have been to actually go to a religious service. No Thank You! Maybe I should start getting up before noon.
Cathedral Count: 4
(I'm sure it's more than this, but I just haven't been keeping track)

Writers, Ireland, and Writers from Ireland

Sure, we all know and love James Joyce, but did you know who else is an Irish writer? This enormous list of people that's who!
Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stocker, Johnathan Swift. Yeah I guess all those books in English had to be written by someone and it sure as hell wasn't an American.
Even more impressive is Ireland actually seems to respect and care about it's writers. There are monuments everywhere and these cool quotes on buildings in midtown Dublin. Even the airport was adorned with literary figures.
This is (a very small piece of) Dublin's Castle. Now that I've been in Europe I know longer understand how cities function without a castle. Where does the king live if there's no castle?
It's a very serious place.
Yes, that's right "ORDER". You officially know not to mess around.
Not too serious back here though, they've painted it festive colors. Yes, they painted a castle. Love this city.
I should note that this is still a functional castle. In other words people still use this as some kind of government building. People have desk jobs here, in this castle.

Oh, and, by the way-
Castle Count - 7
In the spirit of the Irish I've decided to honor the writers I appreciate in an appropriate way (admit it, at the beginning of the sentence you thought this was gonna be another drinking joke). Thus I'm putting a list of other blogs that I enjoy on the right side of my page for you guys to peruse.

I know, I know "But Jesse" you think and say "all my emotiono-blogo-investment is in your wonderful blog you magnificent stallion and nobel prize winner". While this is true it can't hurt to have extra stuff to read on the internet right? Check them out some time. After you read mine.

St. Stephen's Green

I guess that's what this color would be if it were a crayon.My first day in Dublin I just wandered around the city. Let me tell you, it can be refreshing to be around large groups of people again, even for a social phobic like me.
This is St. Stephen's Green, a big park in the middle of the city.
I love ducks. Did I ever mention to you guys that I love ducks?
This isn't a duck but just look at his big floppy feet.
Swans are okay I guess, but they're no ducks. [/duck raving]
This statue is called 'famine' I think, but there's another, more famous famine statue in Dublin so I don't know.
Hhere are some good wallpapers for all of you.
This park was filled with statues as well as magnificent magnificent ducks. There was one of James Joyce that I really wanted to see.
But I never got around to it. Do you know how many good writers are from Ireland? You might after the next update.

Yes, I'm semi-planning ahead now. It's a new direction.

Remember Dublin City?

I sure do because I was there a few weeks ago. Yes, we're finally leaving the Scotland part of the trip and going to Ireland. I hope everyone is excited.
I'll be honest, at first I wasn't (excited). I mean, I had JUST been in Scotland and how different could it be? Ireland felt almost like an afterthought.
I only got excited on the very day we were leaving. It might sound strange and obvious but the reason I got excited was that I remembered that everything Irish came from Ireland.
That includes Bailey's Irish Cream, which is probably my favorite standalone alcoholic beverage and a number of popular beers. Intoxicants aside I remembered that Irish people come from Ireland, and also St. Patrick's Day and Leprechauns. I was really starting to feel the Irish spirit. And I wasn't even drunk yet (does anyone want me to keep track of the drinking=irish jokes?).
Anyway, once we got there it became obvious that I should have been excited from the begining. Ireland is really, really nice. And furthermore Dublin, where we stayed all 4 nights, is a really nice city. I mean, I had just spent about 10 days in Scotland and I was starting to be convinced that nothing that this part of the world could produce could actually feel like livable. But Dublin proved to be a bustling metropolis, friendly and crowded with people.
And it was back to using Euros! Hurray! Everyone loves Euros!
Anyway, what I guess my point is is that I love Ireland. If there's anywhere I've been so far on my trip that I'd actually consider living in, it's there.
Tomorrow we'll go exploring a little bit and maybe I can show you why I liked Ireland so much.

A Blogging trip to Castle Blog (with the Blogging Team)

Originally I was going to call this update "A Day Trip to Castle Durotar", because that's what it is about, but then I noticed something on the main page of this crazy website I blog from
BLOGS OF NOTE (and then a list of some 'blogs of note')
It's linked in case you want to see it yourself. Now if you're anything like me you might say, out loud while flailing your arms, "what the heck is a blog of note?!?!?!"
Luckily they had a little link for me to click and here's what they said

Blogs of Note

Interesting and noteworthy Blogger-powered blogs, compiled by the Blogger Team.


"Blogger powered blogs of note compiled by the blogger team?"
:(
Wonderful. I hope that some day I can not only use the same word 4 times in a sentence but also have that word be 'blog'.
I think I'm gonna resolve to never type 'blog' again.
Castle Count: 6

Magical Fairie Magic?

There's no other explanation for these amazingly old structures.
Unless perhaps, before people had TV or written language they were really bored and had nothing better to do.
Either way these are called Cairns, they once served as burial chambers, maybe.
They're thousands of years old (I forgot how many thousands but it's a lot)
and they're laid out in perfect synchronization with the sun.
One of them has a chamber that would only have been illuminated at the last light of the winter solstice. You can't tell me that's not cool.
Either way, we can all agree that if you stand in the middle of one of these you'll be transported to another universe (as long as you have the magic mirror).