A not-so-little piece of Italy in Dublin

Hey guys. Sorry I'm behind. Yesterday we went down on the quay, right below our hotel, and wandered around the festival. I saw booths selling Native American stuff, NYPD shirts, and even iron-on patches with the Route 66 symbol. I also threatened to get a henna tattoo.
As far as food, they had all kinds. Italian, German, and something I didn't recognize but they put garlic in everything. There's also a Malaysian booth right below our hotel room that smells rather delicious.I also ate fish and chips, and here chips are more like thick french fries, like this:

I haven't gone on the ships yet, I dunno if I'll get to. I want to go on the Amerigo Vespucci, the largest and most beautiful by far, but so does everyone else. We'll have to see. She's 322 feet long, including the bowsprit (the thing that sticks out the front), 177.2 feet from waterline to the top of her mainmast, and 23 feet on the draught (how far underwater she goes), and she displaces 4,570 tons of water. Her sails number 26- about 14,600 sq ft, and enough that laid flat they'd stretch about 2 kilometres. Her figurehead is a life-sized version of her explorere namesake.
Anyway, there are other attractions. A fun fair carnival that's about the size of Howell County's ride selection, and a craft festival that, regrettably, I haven't been to yet.
Hmm.. I know y'all want pictures. Let's see what I can give you from yesterday..
Here's Signor Vespucci himself, leading the ship to the new adventures on the high seas:

And a full frontal of the Amerigo:

Yup, she's that big. Her sides are striped in imitation of the gundecks on the old brig-o-war vessels, but in reality she only has 2 ceremonial six-pound cannons. Still, a 6-pounder can sink a ship if it comes to it..
For this festival, everyone's dressing up, and there are sailor hats for sale on every corner. Even the animals are getting into it:

On a side note, Riverdance is in town and performing tomorrow night. I really hope we get to go.
It's almost 01:00 here, I better sleep. G'night, guys.

Sorry, guys!

Ok guys, I'm soooo sorry I didn't have time to post. But I was totally worn out from walking like 3 miles, climbing a spiral staricase, and kissing the Blarney Stone ;)
Yup, we rented a car yesterday and went to Blarney, just outside of Cork. We got lost twice and driving on the wrong side of the road made sense to me so I navigated.
Anyway, Blarney Castle is huge, with acres and acres of estate. The castle itself is like 7 stories high, and you can find a little map of it and the grounds here.
Here's a picture of the castle exterior:

And a little of the awesomeness involved in the interior. This is the spiral stairs:

Anyway, I kissed the stone (Nope, no pics of that) and we went back down, looked through the "poison gardens," an exhibition of various toxic plants, and then went to the newer, presumably English-built Blarney house. Oh. My. Word.

It's open for tours, but we got there too late. Shouldn't have stopped and eaten this cheese-and-mushroom crepe on the way:

(It's just a really thin buckwheat pancake with stuff folded up in it. I'm gonna have to try making some soon.)
It also had an amazing lawn. The grass really is greener- and softer- in Eire. Although the landscape itself is amazingly similar to the Ozarks in places.
After the House we went to the rock close. There are just too many things to include pictures. It's a natural park full of little paths and huge rocks and amazing and strange trees, you expect a couple of fairies to rustle the bushes next to you and giggle. There was the druid's cave, the dolmen, which I didn't get to see, and the fairy glade. Then there was the Witch's Kitchen and Wishing Steps. Legend says the Blarney Witch is allowed to take firewood from the estate in return for granting their visitors' wishes- so if you can go down the wishing steps and back up with your eyes closed, your wish will come true. The steps are between rock slopes, and with your eyes closed and your thoughts on your wish, you feel a weed scrape your sleeve and, for a moment, you think, "Could that be the witch reaching for me?"
Oops, it's becoming more story than blog. Back to reality.
The last place we went was the Badger Caves, right under the castle. When Lord Cromwell's general broke through the tower wall and tried to steal a rather expensive gold plate, he found only two old butlers- the rest of the inhabitants, and the gold plate, had fled through the badger caves. They say there are three passages in the cave. One goes to Cork, one to the lake behind the castle, and one is said to go all the way to Kerry. These passages, as far as I know, have never been confirmed.
The entrance:

So, when we got out of Blarney, we stopped at McDonalds and ate 100% Irish beef burgers and curly fries. We went straight to bed afterward, so that's why there was no blog.
Oh, by the way, I have a video up. It covers the 20th-21st. The song is Dulaman, an old Irish folk song about seaweed.

Pac-Man is Eating Dublin

Today we went on a tour of Dublin with Damien, to see some museums and monuments and such so we could decide which we wanted to go see. I'm excited about the natural history museum.
By now I'm quite used to Dublin- the traffic is really not bad and driving on the left side of the road makes perfect sense to me. Maybe it does because I'm left-handed?
Anyway, after we got back we decided to find some food, so Dad and I walked to the square behind the hotel and down the street a ways, and found a subway.
And when we were done eating, I went out on the porch... And lo and behold, the Samuel Beckett bridge just a little way down the road, which pivots to allow smaller ships to continue up the river, was swinging round. So until about 10:30 I've been out watching the ships come in and be docked. Nothing is more beautiful, except maybe seeing them with billowing sails.
I hope we can get out of the city tomorrow and do some things. We'll see though.
I found this on the sidewalk in front of our hotel:

Maintenance note

General edit: I fixed it so anyone can comment, if you'd like to say something. Now I get to take a nap.

Still Alive- and only one person will get that reference.

Hey guys. We've touched town on the Emerald Isle. The flights were awesome, although I slept through most of it. A pile of lettuce with 1 slice of cucumber and a cherry tomato is not a salad.
Oops, off-topic. Anyway, we met with our tour guy, Damien, and he's a pretty nice feller. He helped us get settled in and he's giving us a city tour later.
Our room is overlooking the river Liffey, and they have a bridge that rotates to let the smaller ships come in. Literally right across the street from our room. We even have a deck to go out on and watch them. The Tall Ships Race was finished early, and there are some ships already waiting offshore for the festival to start Thursday. I'm so excited!!
I took some pictures today already, I'll have to upload them later tonight so y'all can see the.. clouds. Yup, that's what most of it is. Cloud banks.
Oh, just so you know, breakfast was the "Full Irish" this morning. Drool over this: Fried tomato halves, mushrooms, fried eggs, sausage, ham, and fried potatoes. I didn't eat though, I was sick from being up all night.
Which brings me to my closing statement: Nap time. Y'all have a good mornin. :)

Caution: Flying Spiders

Yeah, so I found one in my purse and had nothing to squish it with so I tossed it across the room. Typical of me.
I figure I'm mostly packed. I'm nervous as can be, though. I'm not used to packing so light!
So, we fly out tomorrow. we'll get to Dublin around 06:30 their time (01:30 Central) and take a nap. Then, I think we'll go to Blarney Castle Tuesday, and maybe the Rock of Cashel if we have time. However, those are just tentative plans. We'll have to see when we get there.
Well, I'll update from somewhere different tomorrow. Maybe from over the great wide Atlantic. Later, y'all.

2 weeks!

Hi everyone! It's August the... *looks at the time* 6th! I go to Ireland in 2 weeks!
I doubt anyone will be reading this, but I'm posting it anyway.
I have my list of places ready, although I may not go to all of them, and they should be on my google+ profile. I'm not used to this site yet, so give it time.
Anyway, I'm excited. Are you excited? You better be.