If you can't be good, be careful.

 It’s not you, it’s me. I’ve been nonstop! I can’t help it though, the weather has been amazing so naturally I’ve been outside as much as possible. I’ve done some really great hikes around the area (Google Ulriken….kicked my butt. We started from sea level, in the city center, walked across the entire city then up the whole mountain, which didn’t have much of a trail. Rough.) and got to experience my first day of boating. Lots of big news, too. It has been decided that my stay in Norway will be extended until spring/summer 2013! Also, two of my close friends (one here and one at home) have recently informed me that they are pregnant! I’m not sure their status on public announcements yet, so I won’t blow the surprise for them, but I’m pretty excited! My friend here was the first to tell me and she’s actually my first friend to be pregnant, sooo that was a new kind of news for me! And then the day AFTER that, I get the news from home! Baby season! So anyway, I started writing this blog about a month and a half ago and didn’t quite have a chance to finish it until now…so I’m going to start where I left off….

ADVENTURE ONE - You know you’re in Ireland when the signs don’t just advise “Don’t Drink and Drive,” but not to drink and drive the following morning because you’re most likely still drunk.

This past March has been the wildest month for me, probably ever. As I last blogged, the month began aboard an Arctic cruise. Then mid-March brought about my long-awaited trip to Ireland for Saint Patrick’s Day! The flight was a Christmas present from the Zachrisen’s and it was quite possibly the best gift I have ever received. The trip was WILD.

I was lucky enough (luck of the Irish?) that a girl from my sorority (who I never had the chance to meet while at Poly because she was new as I was graduating) was going to be there at the same time, so we actually stayed together during the weekend in Dublin. We literally MET at the hostel for check-in! And our hostel was incredible. We had such nice rooms with super comfortable beds, ohhh it was more of a low-end hotel than a hostel so we were soo excited! Livin’ in luxury.

Julie and I spent the first few hours of the trip just hanging out in the room, relaxing after hours of crazy traveling, and getting to know each other. She’s so rad, it’s unreal.

That evening started off with dinner and a round of Guinnesses in a 4-story bar (while there, we developed the now-legendary “double claw hands then point” motion which I thoroughly over-used and abused that whole trip but has since become such a funny memory) before we explored the insanely crowded and festive Temple Bar area. We ended up spending the majority of the night at some huge bar I never learned the name of where we befriended a very large group of Basque Spanish guys. They were the BEST. So much fun to hang out with and they actually all had girlfriends so they weren’t creepin’ at all! Just simple, nice, fun people. There was also this one Austrian guy who was drunker than anyone should ever be who just kept buying more and more whiskey shots for all of us….he’s either really rich or really regretting how much he spent that night. He got a little weird so the Spanish guys shooed him away. It was an absolutely excellent night of dancing and hanging out before we headed back to the hostel in the wee hours of the night.

The next morning was Saint Patrick’s Day! The majority of our group took an all-day bus tour to Galway and the Cliffs of Moher, but I stayed in Dublin with one of the girls who is actually from Sonoma State University. We started the morning off with an amazingly nice Irish breakfast in the hostel, which was accompanied by some adorable old men playing Irish tunes. I somehow managed to forget my annoyingly green outfit in the dryer back in Norway, but luckily I had stashed a dark green AO shirt in the bag at the last minute! AO to save the day! I was almost GREENLESS in IRELAND on ST PATRICK’S DAY. Could you even imagine?

So that day was pretty wild. Everywhere was a party. The streets were crazy, the bars were packed, and everybody was just so HAPPY! We went to the huge parade down the main street of Dublin, explored the Grafton Street area, ate corned beef and cabbage at some super locals bar on a small side street, watched a TON of rugby <3, ended up at a small bar called O’Sullivan’s where I befriended the sweetest Irish lady ever. She was actually the girlfriend of the guy singing at the bar so she was more so there to support him rather than party hardy. We discussed everything from rugby, “traditional” Irish foods that nobody really eats there, and even the current economy of Ireland. It’s amazing the kind of people you meet in the randomest places at the randomest times who really make an impact on you. She was just so cool.

After the other girls returned from Galway, we rallied the troops for the evening out at the biggest Saint Patrick’s Day party in the world. We trekked all throughout Temple Bar but it was SO packed that it didn’t even appeal to us. We randomly ran into the same group of Spaniards while strolling the streets and we all headed back to the same bar as the night before. I actually didn’t realize we were at the same bar because we entered in through the back door and were in a different room than the previous night…I felt so stupid when I figured it out….the next day. That place was huge though and with such drastically different rooms! Anyway, we danced until it closed at 3 AM, then continued to roam the streets for multiple hours afterwards. Out of desperation, we got 4^th meal at nasty Burger King where we met the oddest Irish man, drunker than drunk, who somehow joined our table and proposed to me way too many times. Neiiii takk. After that, we found a shoe in the street and had an intense soccer game while walking around….it was stupid and wildly entertaining, especially when one of the Spaniards lunged for it and ended up faceplanting onto a glass door. Worry not, he was fine and the store was perfectly intact. We eventually said goodbye and it was actually really sad. They had spent so much time with us, looked after us, and really made the two nights super fun. We didn’t even exchange information, but that’s okay, good times were had and those memories will last (hopefully) a lifetime. The night finally ended and we climbed into bed at 5:45 AM…I’d say it was the best Saint Patrick’s Day ever.

…and then I woke up at 7:45AM. The day before, I had attempted to shower at about 9:30 in the morning, apparently after everybody else in the hostel used up every drop of warm water. That had been the most painfully cold shower of my life…like, it wasn’t just un-heated water, it felt like refrigerated water. So, I learned my lesson and forced myself out of bed early enough to beat the hungover folks to the shower. All was well and then we had another delicious Irish breakfast, walked around the city, and hit up some of the popular tourist sites. I also bought THREE Starbucks drinks within about a two-hour time period because Norway only had 1 Starbucks in the country and it is nowhere near me. I’ve missed that chai so much.

At 2 o’clock, I parted ways from Julie and her French group, as I was off to the second half of my trip on my own: Galway <3. On the bus trip I sat next to and befriended the sweetest Irish girl in existence, Rebecca. We actually have a mutual friend from Martinez! The world, man…so small. She was sooo nice and offered to help me find my hostel (major confusion with the address) and even to take me out with some of her hometown friends the following night (ended up not being able to happen but we still keep in contact). My first hostel roommates were a cool young Australian couple who had been backpacking Europe for a ton of months. The guy is about to start his PhD in stem cell stuff…impressive. I headed out on my own to walk around the town, visit the Spanish Arch and stroll the Salthill area for sunset. It was one of those experiences where you are just so happy to be where you are that you can’t stop smiling…so I basically just looked like a creepy sleep-deprived loner walking around at dusk. Cool by me! I then went on a quest for dinner but that never quite happened….

Since most of everything was closed for the holiday, it was pretty hard to find a restaurant open. I wandered into a very out-of-the-way bar and was immediately adopted by the nearest group of locals. Although the bar was no longer serving food at that hour, they definitely made sure my stomach did not stay entirely empty. It was quite embarrassing though, I could not understand half of what they were saying. Such thick accents! Such fast talkers! Such different sayings! I don’t think I’ve ever really heard an Irish accent in person until this trip, and it really threw me for a loop. It’s a whole new English in this land.

This bar, I think I remember it being called The Merry Fiddler, was one of the coolest experiences ever. I was alone in Galway, made all of these new little-while friends, watched an amazing local band play (The Atlantic Pirates), and just took it all in. Literally, everybody knew everybody else. People of allll ages were there. There was even this really old man, probably about 80, who was hanging out with his friends and then started pretending to get into a fight…he was yelling “HOLD ME BACK!” and was flailing around and then started doing high kicks! I kid you not, he kicked his leg up on top of the bar multiple times! Then he danced around and it was hilarrrious. Everybody was dancing and laughing and having such a good time and I just sort of stood in a corner for a bit to take it all in. At one point, this one younger guy started singing  acapella in the front area of the bar and everyone just stopped and listened as he sang some old Irish song. I wouldn’t say he’s got the best voice I’ve ever heard but he sang with such emotion and gusto that it was just beeeautiful. Amazing experience to be the only foreigner in a place and really get absorbed into the local culture. Not saying that the local culture is entirely in a bar setting, but c’mon, the Irish love to drink. I actually picked up a great saying in the bathroom of that bar…a mom was on the phone with her daughter and said, “If you can’t be good, be careful!” Wisest words I’ve heard in a while.

After the most amazing time at that bar, I decided I NEEDED to head back. I had wandered in around 7pm and headed back to my hostel around midnight. I somehow survived Saint Patrick’s Day and an entire day of walking around Dublin, riding the bus to Galway, walking the entire city twice over, AND a night at the bar (without dinner still) with only having had 2 hours of sleep. Whewwww. So I went to bed and snoozed so hard…until like 7am.

The next morning I took the touristy route, I signed up for a bus tour around The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. I am pretty certain I was the only lone wolf on the bus and I ended up sitting in the verrry back of the bus with this loony Italian lady and her very normal son. She was fun to talk to and all, but because SHE couldn’t quite understand the tour guide over the speakers, she just kept talking and talking and talking the WHOLE time. I was getting pretty frustrated with her because she really was a space cadet kind ruining it for everyone else around her. -______-

Anyway, so we visited the typical tourist stops, like some old ruins, an ancient burial site, some leprechaun dwellings (duh), and some other cool little places. We even drove past the Matchmaker Bar where they have an event every September for which people come from all over the world to be matched up with the love of their life. So, who wants to go with me?

We eventually made it to the Cliffs of Moher and it was breathtaking. Of COURSE I went past all of the warning signs and such. Must.push.the.limits! Don’t worry though, I didn’t do anything too risky. I may not have slipped near the edge of the cliffs on the hardly-even-“forbidden” path, but I DID take a nasty spill on the nicely paved pathway near the parking lot. Woo, go me. Traveling alone, falling in public, no one else even acknowledged me. Awesome. Highlight of my life. Yay.

Out of embarrassment, I decided to go spend the last 15 minutes of our time there just sitting on the bus. Our tour guide was the cutest oldest wrinkliest funniest man and when I walked on the bus, he was hanging out in a random seat with a huge ice cream cone and ice cream smeared all around his mouth. He said, “My ice cream doesn’t taste as good as you look. You need to move here and find an Irish man to sweep you off your feet.” Well, that sounds mighty fine to me. Embarrassment from falling immediately forgotten.

The cool thing about the way back is that the crazy lady stayed behind! The whole bus, including her son, were all waiting for her to come back and she finally walked up to the side of the bus, holding hands with some guy, and said she wasn’t coming back! She literally stayed behind with this random guy she met and told her son she’d meet up with him back in Galway later. CLASSIC. It became the big joke of the entire bus during the ride back.

I got back and met my two new roommates at the hostel, Claudia from Germany and Metta (sp?) from Indonesia. Way cool girls. Metta is Muslim and when it came time for her prayers, she asked me if I would be offended if she did them in the room…I was like, “GO FOR IT! I’d actually be very interested in seeing this in real life.” I was in Ireland, learning more about Islam…so awesome! After that, the three of us headed to McDonagh’s for their world-famous fish and chips. Now, this was actually my first fish and chips experience, and it was magical. I befriended three guys in line who were from England, South Africa, and New Zealand. Oh, swoooon. I actually promised to meet them at Taaffes a couple hours later in the evening but I got a bit distracted when I returned to The Merry Fiddler with Claudia.

I had promised my friends from the previous night that I would return, but THEY never actually showed. That’s okay though, saved me money on a round for them. But the bartender remembered me and we chatted for a while, since the bar was nearly empty. He gave Claudia and I some free shots, which he called “mini Guinnesses,” since they were similar in coloring. Now, I don’t really like the taste of many things alcoholic but those were delicious!

Then, in walked a father-son duo that I immediately pinned as Americans. Their teeth were straight. And since living abroad for 6 months now, I’ve developed an ability to easily identify Americans by even the smallest mannerisms. Anyway, I started talking with them and by the end of the night, I felt like we were old friends. Eddie, the father, lives in New Orleans, and Zak, the son is living near Orlando. Zak and I talked for hoursss. I wouldn’t say we “hit it off” or anything but we definitely got along very well and we had a really great time chatting. It was so cute, Zak and his Dad decided to do a trip to Ireland since they both really love Guinness, while his mom and sister were on a trip in Italy. Zak bought us all a round of really fancy whiskey, which was very nice of him. I offered to next and I told the bartender to pick for me but to keep it reasonably priced….he went for the top shelf stuff, still in the box, poured it in the glasses for us….and told me 12€! Only 12!!!! We googled the type of whiskey (which I now forget) and found that it runs for about $60 per shot in the US!!!! The bartender said he’s just been waiting and wanting someone he deemed worthy to open that bottle for. We felt so honored! And, my wallet was even more so thankful. Another amazing night at The Merry Fiddler.

Zak ended up giving me his information, in case I’m ever in the Orland area and then we parted ways. They hadn’t yet had dinner before getting caught up in a night of drinking and Irish music, as I had he night before. They invited me to join them for a late bite, but I thought it best for me to head back to the hostel for a few hours of sleep.

The following morning, I was up by 5am, on the bus back to Dublin by 5:30am, and watching the sun rise over the Irish countryside as I began my journey back to Bergen. Quite possibly the funnest and greatest trip of my life…

Upon return, I went back to Norwegian class, graduated from Level 3/4, soaked up the rare perfect weather, and prepared for my Cal Poly friend, Andrew Tofflemire, to arrive just a few days later….but all of that will be in the next blog soon….

Although I will soon be continuing to recap my life during the past month, there are a few things I’d like to mention now. I recently met a Martinez girl in Bergen, who also went to Cal Poly, here! Her boyfriend is in my Norwegian class. What are the chances?! And I’d really like to thank Zia Anna and Zia Fris for keeping me in the loop with postcards and AO Guide Letters!!! And thanks to Lillie for sending me the sweetest handwritten letter! Expect something soon, Lillie! And Kara sent me an amaaazing package full of books, intensely warm neckwear, s’more necessities, and a jar of Central California shells, rocks, flowers, and sage. I almost cried.

And now I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in Nice, France with my mother…that will likely have to be a whole ‘nother blog of it’s own. But FYI, KLM Airlines gives out free beer and wine on the flights….whoa! This blog makes me sound like an alcoholic….I swear I’m not.

Lastly, happy late birthday to Zia Fris and little Vincenzo! <3