the french cookie: the luck of the irish.

ireland - check. another super long and tiring weekend. the adventure began when i flew out to london thursday night and arrived around midnight only to wait in line for about 90 minutes to get through passport security. naturally all of the non-european union countries have to go to separate line - so basically all americans. of course, it is the longest and slowest line to get through. when all of the europeans were done and security decided to come attend to the "others", everyone burst out into cheers. finally around 1:30 i was welcomed into london. too bad my flight left for ireland 5 hours later. after a lovely night sleeping on the airport floor (don't worry i had 2 friends with me and i promise there were like 100 other people doing the same thing), paige arrived and we left bright and early for ireland! we didn't really have much of a plan - just a bunch of "we could do this or maybe this" ideas. the only thing that was on my "must do" list was to eat at an irsh pub and listen to live irish music (while maybe drinking an irish coffee or baileys - the virgin kind obvi). first things first - an irish breakfast. now in france eggs are NEVER eaten for breakfast - only dinner. it's funny how different the culture is just across the pond. my first irish meal consisted of eggs, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, hash browns, toast, and a giant cup of coffee (much bigger than france but much much weaker). at breakfast we mapped out our POA. it's a shame that the streets change names every few blocks because we got lost a lot. but getting lost is all a part of the adventure. we finally decided to take a tour of the dublin castle. we learned a lot of fun facts about ireland's history. 1) irish (or gaelic) is ireland's national language and 2) the queen of england made her first visit to ireland in 2011 - it had been 100 years since a royal figure had sat in the royal chair of the castle. next on our list was the guiness factory. however, we both made an executive decision that one tour was enough for us and neither of us cared to drink the free pint at the end of the tour. we ended up walking around and exploring all of the souvenir shops (which are full of sheep beer and more sheep). finally it was time for lunch (i literally think that all we did was eat all weekend) and fish and chips were in order. we found a cute irish resturant and got our fill of another traditional meal. after lunch we did more exploring and getting lost. being ireland, it was bound to rain sometime during the day. we it finally started to pour we found ourselves in the famous irish pub, fitzgeralds bar. it was the perfect break to rest, grab a coffee and re-energize for the rest of the day. we keep with the same routine and walked around and shopped some more and then finally settled on an italian resturant for dinner. good thing we were both exhausted and tired of eating because it was time to take the train from dublin to delgany to stay with our new irish friends, the evans. the evans are the most precious couple i have ever met. paige's piano teacher at wheaton stayed with them on her last trip to ireland with the college church singing group. they live in the countryside in a beautiful house with an amazing view of the hillside. they were so welcoming and we were both so grateful to have a warm and cozy home to stay in. we passed out in our king size bed and slept for a solid 12 hours. when we finally got up the next morning/afternoon we ate another traditional irish meal - yogurt with fresh fruit and musili (which is my new favorite thing). we chatted with the couple for a long time before we finally settled on a plan for the day. they took us to powerscourt castle which was so beautiful. after the short tour we sat in the gardens for tea, coffee, scones and cookies. next they decided they wanted to take us to the waterfall. on our way their we saw signs for a raspberry farm and mrs. evans decided she had to stop. this so-called farm turned out to be someones house filled with boxes of freshly picked raspberries. while we were talking to the old lady and her grandson, the grandson looked at me and paige and said "well ya can't just stand there. here eat some raspberries!" (all in an irish accent) he gave us a free punnet of raspberries and welcomed us to ireland. i guess chivalry isn't dead there! after that we went to the powerscourt waterfall which was surrounded by ireland's 40 shades of green. next, the evan's dropped us off at johnnie fox's pub which is claimed to be ireland's highest club. we shared a bowl of seafood soup which was accompanied by their brown bread. i went with another irish traditional dish - lamb, potatoes and veggies. i ate every bite. for dessert we shared apple pie a la mode. after dinner we went to the bar area and got coffee and finally listened to a live irish band! after they played my favorite son (whiskey in the jar) my visit to ireland was complete. even though it wasn't "ps i love you 2" and i didn't get lost in sheep country and resuced by an irish man with a heart-breaking accent, it was an amazing trip and a beautiful country!