Dublin and the Pyrenees

Dublin, Ireland is such a happy place. The people there are very friendly and stop to speak to you on the streets like you’ve known each other your whole life. Hearing English was fantastic, and I was able to understand everything! What a change from my normal life of blissful ignorance in the Castellano world. All of the street signs include English and the Irish language, and during our day trip to Wikilow, our trusty tour guide, Malas, even spoke a little bit of Irish. Wikilow is so beautiful, and we got to see the spots where Brave Heart and PS I Love You were filmed. The weather was freezing, and we were both frozen to death much of the time. I loved that the culture in Ireland was very similar to America and that I didn’t have to wait til very very late to eat dinner.

Megan and I went to Temple Bar the first night and hung out at some pubs. Sadly enough, while trying to socialize with the Irish, we found Americans. Americans seems to always find Americans. The pub scene was great! All of the people were singing songs together and drinking the favorite Irish drink, Guinness. The Guinness factory was huge and reminded me a lot of the Coca Cola factory in Atlanta. We also saw the Book of Kells in Trinity College and a cool prison. Although, in the prison our tour guide repetitively spoke about the prisoners that were housed there in the future tense. I think that his job was a little too real for him.

Immediately after returning from Dublin, we dumped our bags and repacked for the Pyrenees Mountains with our host family.

For the Spanish holidays, Monday and Tuesday, they offered to take us to their mountain house. The house is in the most beautiful pueblo with picturesque scenes all around.

We got to meet much of the extended family including many cousins. I even got to go in my first hot spring and Roman bath! We played in the snow and went sledding, played black jack and lost all of our tokens to little kids, took bike rides and bike falls, and engaged in lots of wrestling.

I have never had my hair pulled as much or been smashed with pillows as many times as I was this weekend. I am really going to miss Marc, Aleix, and Pau so much when I leave. I’ve gotten a small peak at what it would be like to have 3 little brothers, and I have to say it’s been very nice.