i kissed the blarney stone!

well that traditional "irish" music that was advertised in the pub in dublin turned out to be not so traditional. it was like the guy was playing straight up KEZK soft rock with a slight irish twist in the guitar. i mean, the guitar playing really was great but he was playing songs like "don't worry, be happy". i mean, WHAT?!?!?! so that was disappointing to say the least. BUT, i did try an irish beer. i didn't have guiness b/c i only like that in irish car bombs and i wasn't about to go chugging those on my own ;) so i had a red ale called Smithicks and it actually wasn't too bad. i had 2 glasses suprisingly :) but i will tell you what, its not really fun being at a pub alone......... lame.

anywho, yesterday i trained it from dublin to cork and everything went really smoothly. and i got here around 11:25 and i was walking to my hostel when i happened upon a presbyterian church that started at 11:45 so i decided to go on in, with all my junk strapped to my back. and it was absolutely wonderful! the sermon was great and very encouraging and challenging. it was from 1 peter 3 and talked about not being ashamed of the gospel and always being able to given an account for what you believe in and why, and doing it in a respectful manner. it really hit home for me b/c when sarah and i were in paris getting one of our many crepes, the crepe maker asked us about christianity and stuff after he found out what i majored in. and i basically froze and didn't really know how to answer lots of his questions. it was pretty lame, but at least sarah represented :) so anyways, it was a good sermon for me to hear. and afterwards they had a time of tea and coffee and people were super friendly. and they told me that the Tour of Ireland, which is a huge bike race that draws competitors from all of the world, was ending today in cork. so that was freaking awesome. i went and dropped my stuff off at my hostel and basically walked down the street to the finish line. it was a lot of fun!!

there doesn't seem to be a ton to do in cork other than go shopping, and since i have no money to spend i'm glad that i only stayed for 2 nights. and since i've been here 2 drunk old men have come up and talked to me and it makes me feel somewhat hestitant/semi-unsafe to be by myself. so last night i was going to go to a pub to try again to hear some irish music but i wasn't really feeling it. i mean, where is my night in shining armor who is supposed to protect me?!?!?! :)

so today i got a bus ticket to blarney and i went to the blarney castle and kissed the blarney stone!!! as i was walking up to the castle i started to tear up. i'm not exactly sure why. i mean, part of it was happy tears, but another part of it was it made me wish that i could have been there with my parents and dorothy when they were there a few years back. i don't know what my deal is ;) but it was great!!! i even forked over too much money to buy a pic of me kissing it, but it was worth it. b/c the little, frail old lady in line behind me took a pic for me on my camera but it was blurry :) but i told the little old ladies behind me about how my parents came with a little old lady, dorothy, a few years back and she kissed it (i hope she did at least...) so that gave them the courage to do it b/c they thought they wouldn't be able to. so that was fun. and all together beautiful! i'm so happy i got to see it. and then i took a train to this place called Fota Wildlife Park which some people at the church recommended. its like a zoo but there aren't really walls that keep the animals in. they all roam together for the most part and are only separated from humans by little wire fences. so it was pretty cool to be so close to giraffes (my fav!) and zebras and i literally could have petted the kangeroos if i wasn't super scared to!. hahahah so that was something random that filled my afternoon.

i was gonna go try to go to a pub tonight but on my train ride home from the zoo place i wasn't really feeling well. sort of light headed-ish which is weird. so i think i might just stay in and try to finish my book. yay!!! :) i still have a couple nights in killarney to hit up a pub and from what i hear they have great music there. and that is where i'm headed tomorrow. i am so looking forward to it!! its actually been the place i've most been looking forward to (other than kelli's) b/c jeff branson told me about the national park that he biked through so i've been really looking forward to doing that. i don't think my body remembers what its like to do any form of physical activity other than walk, so this will be a welcomed change for sure :)

i've been doing some life reflection which i will talk about more later when i have more time. this blog is already getting too long...... :)

and nikki said that augustino was talked about at church which seriously cracks me up!!! so if you want to see pics you can go to sarah's snapfish account. my dad so graciously put her login information on my previous blog. he is the greek guy with the longer hair :) it won't take long to figure out who we've been ranting about ;)