Author: kaelarenae

It’s been about a month since I started traveling. It’s crazy how fast time goes by. I have seen so much in such a short time but I have also so little time to see so much more. I have been to 9 different cities in 4 different countries. I am now on to my 10th city and my 5th country and it has only been a month. I feel so lucky and so fortunate. I know a lot of people travel but not many that have been to so many places.

Today I tried to sleep in. I have been hostel hoping like crazy with 10 am checkouts and today I didn’t have to check out. I also didn’t get to sleep in because everyone was making a ruckus in the morning.

I roamed the city of Manchester. I went to a couple museums as well as a library. What I thought was interesting was that they were all free. At home nothing is free so it was very unexpected.

A simple and calm day. The Vogue exhibit was very interesting and cool to see. It was my favorite part of the day. But the science museum was really cool as well. We have something similar at home, I can’t remember what it is called but there are many interactive elements involving science.

Nothing very exciting happened except for the one time I failed to lift my leg and I tripped, thankfully I caught myself. A gentleman who was walking toward me who saw the whole thing play out proceeded to say something like “you still look cool love” in his English accent as he walked by. I could not stop laughing at the fact that I can’t walk and at what he said.

Well that’s that, my excitement for the day. It was nice to have a calm, chill and non-eventful day. My last few days have been full of constant struggles and excitement.

Since I wasn’t able to go to New Grange, Alex helped me find another tour to go on this morning. I needed to find something to do to kill time since my flight to Manchester wasn’t until 8:30.

I ended up on the Wicklow Mountain tour. I was super bummed and I was not as excited as I should have been which definitely affected my experience. I had a great time but my excitement level was a little low. I had studied New Grange in school which got me excited about it. I knew nothing about the Wicklow Mountains and it looked pretty but it also looked like a lot of things I had already seen.

The tour was really good. I had a lot of fun and it had cool things to see such as the P.S. I Love You bridge and the Guinness Lake. We also went to this monastic community in Glendalough that housed of a great number of burial sites. It was still a great tour even though it wasn’t New Grange.

We made it back around 5:45 which gave me plenty of time to get to the airport. It was only about 30 minutes from the hostel. All was going well. I made it on the bus with perfect timing. Of course with such a great day something had to happen.

I ended up sitting on that darn bus for an hour and a half. So much traffic!  It was unreal. I was sitting on the bus and an hour hit and I was thinking that I could literally walk faster than this bus is moving right now. I had a moment where I was greatly considering getting the heck off the bus just to make sure I made my flight.

The bus made it to the airport around 7:30 and from there the stress and anxiety about getting on that plane just got worse. First I was dropped off at the wrong terminal and I was running around like a crazy person trying to find the right terminal. I finally made it to the Ryan Air desk sweating like a pig. 35 pounds is not easy to run with. The airline people must have thought I was literally crazy but they were so helpful. It was at the desk that I learned there was some huge fire or something that caused the traffic.

I checked my bag and ran to security. Still sweating I made it through but my bag did not. Everyone was looking at me and I kept getting asked if I was okay. Obviously I was not okay. My face was red, I was dripping sweat and all I wanted was for me and all of my luggage to make it on that darn plane that was about to close its gates.

I had 10 minutes before the gates closed and my bag had to be searched. I was trying to think about what I had in my bag that wouldn’t make it through the screening, it had made it through when I flew from Glasgow and I had all the same stuff and I even remembered to empty my water during all of the running. The security man pulls out the brand new sunscreen I had bought today to prevent anymore burning of my body. I didn’t even care he could have my 10 euro sunscreen as long as he let me go.

I literally ran. No joke I was full on sprinting through the airport. It was like one of those movie scenes except I wasn’t running to tell the love of my life to stay I was simply running to catch my flight. Everyone was looking at me once again, I was still sweating in fact I was sweating even more.

I ran so fast I felt like I was running a 400 meter sprint like I used to when I was on the track team in high school. Clearly I am not in the shape I was back in the day.  I arrived winded and red and sweaty again but I made it. I didn’t even care that I was about to be in close quarters smelling like I ran a marathon. I do want to thank you Coach Moe for helping me make that plane.  If it wasn’t for you being a great coach and pushing me to my limits, I probably would not have made it.

I arrived in Manchester, all of my luggage arrived in Manchester and it was a successful journey. But boy did I need a drink, good thing I’m legal here.

This morning I woke up of course later than I wanted to and slightly sunburned. I heard it was better to go to the castle early but that wasn’t happening. Let’s be honest I haven’t been up early a single time this whole trip except for the important things like to catch trains and buses. For my main transportation to different cities or countries I am there at the gate or platform like 3 hours early. My anxiety is unreal when it comes to missing planes and so forth.

I think the only time I will actually get up early on this trip is going to be for my class in Paris. Thank you school for teaching me to get up early for the important things like exams, presentations, the important days of class (just kidding my major doesn’t allow us to miss class so yes Mom and Dad I do go to class everyday we are scheduled) and last but not least football tailgates of course.

One of the best parts to traveling alone is that I am my time keeper. I get to do what I want when I want. No offense to my friends and family but some of you I can’t wait up for and the other some of you get up way too early for my liking (Dad). Seriously though how does it take someone 5 hours to get ready and who can function at 5am?! Of course to me my schedule and timing is perfect but it is all perspective.

I made it to the castle in the late morning so there weren’t many people there yet. The wait to kiss the stone was only about 30 minutes. I heard that it could take up to 2 hours. To be honest I would probably still wait in line.

Yes, I did kiss a stone. Of course it wasn’t just any stone, it was the Blarney Castle Stone. Supposedly it gives you a lifetime of eloquence. Look out people I am full of eloquence now. Aha. Anyways I kissed the stone and I made sure to wash my lips with hand sanitizer right after. Do you know how many people have kissed that stone?! Too many, I am now an Eskimo sister with about a trillion people out there from around the world. I guess that’s kinda cool but also weird.

Although the stone was the main attraction to the castle, there was much more that the Blarney Castle had to offer. There was so much land and many other great parts to this attraction. The pictures will show.

Speaking of pictures I think I took about a million while I was there. I also harassed other visitors by making them take boomerang pictures for me and I was being picky. Sometimes you got to do it for the Instagram, kidding not kidding. Check me out on Instagram (kaelarenae). I think my photographers did pretty well, photocreds to them.

I returned to the city center and had a few hours to kill before my bus left for Dublin. I toured around the market center. Delicious food !! They served sausage and of course ice cream. The next time any of you see me I will have put on about 5,000 pounds but hey, I’ll be a happy camper!

A 3 hour bus ride later and I was back in Dublin. I made it to the hostel just fine. I wanted to see New Grange tomorrow but I totally blew it and didn’t book the tour a few days ago and now the tours are full. I did my best to make it work and the receptionist, Alex, was extremely helpful as well. Unfortunately New Grange was not meant to be. I will just have to come back I guess!

A new city today with more new adventures. The only reason I came to Cork was to see the Blarney Castle and to kiss the stone. I had no other reason or sight I wanted to see.
Half of my day was taken up by about a 2.5 hour bus ride. I arrived at the hostel around 2pm and got settled in. I was in the smallest room ever to be imagined. A room smaller than my room at home and smaller than my room in my apartment. To make things better there were three sets of bunk beds. The room had to have been about 6ft by 12ft give or take a few feet. Small and of course I arrived on one of the warmest days. I did my best to stay out of that room for as long as possible. I only wanted to be there only when necessary.

I spent the rest of the day walking around. It was a beautiful day out. After rain and clouds for the past few days the sunshine was much needed.

Lunch, window shopping, ice cream and a nice relaxing moment in the park, my day was completely satisfying. I did my best to soak up the sun for as long as possible since Washington has made me a ghost. I constantly long for my Southern California tan. After a while of sunbathing it dawned on me that I did not put sunscreen on, even worse I didn’t have any with me. The fearful thought only stuck with me for a short while until I reached a point of not caring and was just thankful that the sun was even out at all.

An early night for me. Tomorrow I am heading to the Blarney Castle and back to Dublin. Rest is also much needed.

I made a very last minute decision to go to the Cliffs of Moher. It was 10:30 and the bus was departing at 11:30. A quick turnaround was necessary.

The tour took us around the Galway area. We saw other sites on our way to the cliffs as well as on our way back. We got to see the Burrens and more of the coast of Ireland.

I was almost literally blown away at the cliffs of Moher, the wind was something else. Walking along the cliffs and the wind was pushing me around. The inner trail was a safer option since I wasn’t trying to be blow off the edge of the cliff.

Other than the wind and the fog, the cliffs were amazing. They were so green, as if they were from a dream. Definitely like nothing I have ever seen before. A treasure of the country of Ireland.

The pictures will better explain but do not do it justice.

After a busy and packed day yesterday I was now in need of a relaxing day today. I walked around the city slowly going back to places I had skimmed by before. I also needed to slow down on my spending after yesterday. The weather was nice and the sun was out so that made it a great day. No rain meant that everyone was outside enjoying their day.

I toured the St. Patrick’s church which was very nice. It did look similar to all of the rest I have seen but it had unique interactive elements. They had a section where you could touch different things in the church like a portion of stained glass, or carved wood and so on. They had another section where you could color. There was a stencil that you put over the paper and then shade over and the image would show up.

After, I walked around the Dublin Castle just to check it out. I have seen so many castles throughout my travels I’m beginning to get castled out as well as cathedral’d out. They all are similar and start to look the same after a while.

I took my time walking through Grafton Street this time. I watched the street performers as I made my way to the end. Of course I got ice cream on this beautiful day, how could I not.

As I got to the end I found myself wandering towards a park. It was a beautiful park and was pretty big. There were so many people out enjoying their time with their family and friends. It is always a happy thing to see when people are outside enjoying their day.

7:15pm hit and I was off to Galway.

The Book of Kells, Guinness and Jameson all in one day. Only three things but my day was packed and busy.

The Book of Kells exhibit is a very well known exhibit at trinity college. I actually did a project and presentation about it in one of my classes. From the research I did, I became interested in the exhibit and had an urge to go see it one day. I had no idea that day would be so soon. The exhibit was smaller than most but still really good and interesting. There were pages from the books that were blown up to a larger size and were illuminated by light to make the colors and designs stand out. A part of the exhibit was the Old Library. This library has a barrel vaulted ceiling and is lined with busts of influential people. The library also holds a harp that is very old but well preserved.

My next stop was the Guinness Storehouse. This tour led me through and I learned about everything that goes into making their beer. From the grains to the water they use, there are very specific ingredients and quality they use and need.

They had a section that taught you how to taste the beer and another that taught you how to pour it. We all got to pour our own pint of Guinness which was pretty cool. Throughout the entire tour with the different sections of the tour you slowly learned about the history behind the company as well as the beer.

A two hour tour and one hour in the gift shop and I finally made it out. I actually had to leave after the tour and come back since I had the Jameson tour right after. Gift shops are dangerous lets just say that.

The Jameson tour was very similar to the Guinness. We had a guide this time instead of it being a self tour. It was more calm and personalized than the Guinness. We learned about the entire process from where the grains come from to the aging process. We tested three different types of whiskey Jack Daniels, a Scottish whiskey and then of course Jameson. They were all different and it was interesting to taste the different flavors in each.

There were a ton of Californians on this tour mostly from San Francisco, the tour guide was even from California. Californians must love their whiskey.

Too much money was spent but my excuse is “but when will I be back?” which is a completely valid point. It was a busy and full day which is what I am here for.