Turning 21 Irish style

I turned 21 last Wednesday, the 7th. The big joke all semester was that my 21 wouldn't be as big since I'm in a country where I've been legally drinking since the day I arrived, but I was still really excited! I went out and bought a cute new dress with some birthday money I was given by one of my mom's friends. My friend Erin was really helpful and did so much--she bought things to put in my hair and a 21st birthday pin. She did my hair and makeup and I must say I thought I looked pretty damn good. Everyone else seemed to be blown away too. I felt like the end result of a What Not to Wear episode and was almost thinking "Wow am I a total dog most days?" Haha.
The plan was to have people over to my house, do some drinking, and then go downtown to a club. I wanted to go to a place called Molly's, because it's free to get in and I've never been there. Unfortunately, I ended up having too much fun at my house party, got a little sick, and then everyone was telling me it wouldn't be a good idea to get in a cab and go downtown. I was kind of argumentative about it because I really wanted to go out but it was a really fun house party I must say. I did a lot of dancing and had so much fun and quite a few people came over! The cake was devil's food and was DELICIOUS. Security ended up busting it, because you're not supposed to have people over after 11:00. After that, I ended up going to the house next door and hung out for awhile.

21st birthday dress!

Erin, my makeup artist and hairstylist

Some of our Eau Claire group: Ben, me, Lily, Kathleen, and Katie W!

Drunk!

Plassey House 2! (missing Karen, Jimmy, Leona, and technically Sean!)

J'Adore Paris: Part Trois (All The Rest!)

Ok....so I've majorly been slacking and I can't believe it has taken me this long to write about my spring break. I know I tend to include a basic play by play of my travels, which is probably why this has been so hard because I spent 5 full days in Paris and did so much. So here, it is, an experiment in trying to be concise.

Wednesday: We went to the Louvre. We were there for probably like 5 hours or so. Saw the Mona Lisa (it was like a rock concert...there was a HUGE Crowd of people to see her. Amazing what 1 painting has become over the years) We were dead tired at the end. We grabbed lunch at a place by our hostel (had a croque madame...which is a croque monsieur with an egg on it! Then we went back to the hostel and were majorly lazy for the rest of the day. We went down to the restaurant in the hostel at about 10:00 to get a last meal for the day. I had nachos.
On Thursday we went to the Luxembourg Gardens. It was a gorgeous day...the sun was shining and it didn't rain at all for once! We had fun imitating being the statues. I finally had a crepe...got one from the stand in the park! Next we went to a cemetery because Abbey wanted to see the graves of 2 philosophers she really liked. Then Our next stop was the Catacombes! It was really cool but creepy because there were sooooo many bones and skulls. After the Catacombes, Katie and I went to Notre Dame to try to find her friend from UWEC who was there with the marching band because they were supposed to have just started performing a little earlier. We didn't find them and the line to get in to the tower was insanely long, so we decided not to do it, and went to the Arc D'Triomphe to go to the top of that, but the line was really long and we just didn't feel like waiting. We walked around the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, the main street in Paris. We went in to the Luis Vuitton store--the prices were crazy! We also got Haagen-Daaz ice cream. YUM. After that we went back to the hostel. Abbey, Katie, and I went to the Pompidou, the museum of modern art. It was cool, but modern art is a little too out there for me. Katie left at about 8:30 to go meet up with her friend at their hotel. I ended up taking a really great picture of the Eiffel tower at sunset from one of the windows at the Pompidou! Abbey and I left at about 9:15 and went to McDonald's. It is so much better there than in America. France uses their own ingredients and the burger patties are way bigger than America! Ha. Sad that I'm so pumped about it. :)








On Friday, Katie got up early to see her friend perform with the band at the Eiffel tower one last time. I packed all my stuff up, had breakfast with Abbey, and then checked out of the hostel. Abbey and I headed to the Orsay, a contemporary art museum. Katie met up with us later. That museum was pretty cool...I saw a few paintings I knew (The Renoir girl, which is featured in an episode of Gilmore Girls!) and I loved the collection of dot paintings. Katie and I grabbed lunch in the cafe while Abbey looked around more. We ended up crashing on a bench and just vegging for awhile. Then Katie's friend Beth called because they wanted to hang out one last time. We made arrangements to all go out to dinner. The dinner was AMAZING! Beth's mom paid for everything, including mine which I did not expect because we'd never met. She ordered a bottle of wine and escargot! I was a little scared to try it, but I ended up eating 3 and didn't think it was as disgusting as I always imagined it must be. the butter and parsley definitely help. My main course was grilled beef with mashed potatoes....SO AMAZING! Definitely the best meal of my life. And of course, DESSERT. I had a cup of vanilla ice cream with whipped cream, and fresh raspberries and strawberries. I felt like I had food twins after, but it was so worth it! Then we went to the Eiffel Tower because Beth and her mom hadn't seen it at night yet. It was the perfect way to finish out the week. I was so sad to be leaving...well then anyway. After what happened later in the evening, I was starting to look forward to being back in my house, in my bed!

We went back to the hostel to pick up our luggage we had stored and to say goodbye to Abbey.
We had thought the last bus went back to the airport in Beauvais at 12:30 AM. However, that was the last time it came to Paris. We wouldn't be able to go back till the morning. We didn't have anywhere to stay. Our hostel was all the way across town and the metro was going to be closing soon. Katie thought maybe we could just hang out in a hotel lobby all night, but I didn't really think that would work, and sure enough we got kicked out of one that we went to. I was not keen on the idea of spending the night on the Paris streets, even though it was already late and would only be a few hours till we could get on the bus. I was already tired and didn't want to haul my bag around. We ended up getting a room in a best western. IT cost 60 euro which kind of sucked because we were there for probably 3 1/2 hours! But we were glad we did it because we both needed sleep and it would have just sucked being on the streets. We got on the bus at about 6:00 AM, made our plane to Dublin, grabbed a bus back to Limerick (which took forever!) Oh, and I somehow lost my phone for Ireland on the way back. I don't know if I left it at the Best Western or it fell out of my coat pocket, but it was gone! Luckily my mom wasn't too upset with me. I went and got a new one a couple days later so all is well.

Well, that's Paris, in somewhat of a nutshell. It was amazing and such a beautiful city. I can't wait to go back someday! :)

The last of the pictures...my delicious and free Parisian meal!

 J'Adore Paris! (Part Deux: Versaille and the Eiffel Tower)
Tuesday, March 30, 2010: On Tuesday, we went on a tour of the Palace of Versailles, where King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette lived. It was a little bit on the outskirts of Paris, because Versailles was actually it's own village at one time, but if I remember correctly now it's considered part of Paris. Or still it's own. I don't know haha. But anyway, we were on the train for about 40 minutes. The palace was amazing! It was so big and so beautiful with beautiful gardens and magnificent fountains and statues. King Louis was way in to Greek mythology so, a vast majority of the fountains were of Greek gods like Dionysus the God of Wine and Apollo the sun God, who was his absolute favorite. The tour itself was basically walking around outside the palace and through the gardens but we were given the option of staying after and going inside if we wanted to. It rained quite a bit on the tour, but it was still really cool. Katie and I ended up going inside. I would have loved to travel back in time and been there when people actually lived in it. Here's a fun, yet somewhat not so fun fact that I learned: in the entire time that Louis lived in the palace, which was many many years, he only took 42 baths! Alex said that equaled about 1 bath every six months! Gross!

inside the palace

Katie and I took the train back to Paris and met up with Abbey back at the hostel. We ate dinner in the restaurant down there and got cocktails (It was ladies night!) Then we headed out to THE EIFFEL TOWER!! We took about 100 pictures of it when we first got there, trying to get the right lighting and what not since it was at night. I got a couple of pretty good ones--others turned out a little blurry. Then we headed closer and decided to take the stairs to the 2nd floor. We were pretty high off the ground from the get go, and I was definitely getting my Fear of Heights Panic feeling. I took it slow though, and before I knew it we were at the first floor. It really wasnt that bad once we were on the actual platforms. I felt very safe on it, and not like on the edge of anything, so that definitely put me at ease. Then, we started going to the 2nd floor, and I went soooo slow and watched every step because I didn't want to trip. I'm glad we went at night so there wasn't a huge crowd. When we finally got the 2nd floor, I had such an adrenaline rush I seriously almost thought I was going to throw up. Haha, I'm such a weirdo. But seriously, this is the girl who gets scared going up to the top of waterslides at WI Dells. The Eiffel Tower itself is 1000 feet in the air. I'm not sure how high up the 2nd floor is, but it's HIGH. Alex suggested we only go to the 2nd floor because it is still an amazing view and the top is pretty much the same only just way farther away, and it's a lot cheaper to just go to the 2nd floor. So even though I can't say I've been all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower, it was still an amazing view and who am I kidding--I probably would have hyperventilated at the very top. Conquering the 2nd floor was good enough for me. I called my mom when I got to the 2nd floor because I wanted to share this experience with her. It was definitely a moment where I felt 100% alive and free and belonging to the world and a feeling I will never ever forget! And going back down, I took it VERY Slow.

Ok...who am I kidding? I am leaving this post as is for now and will try to take care of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in a 3rd post but knowing me how I write way too much may end up having like 2 or 3 more posts :) Hope you guys find this interesting enough.

J'adore Paris! (Part 1)

Bonjour! Well, spring break in Paris is sadly over. We got back yesterday at about 4 PM. What an adventure the past week was! I will try to not ramble on and include every minor detail, so I will break it down day by day.

Saturday March 27, 2010: We left Limerick at about 9:30 on a bus headed to Dublin, where we were flying out. I had been to Dublin once when Ellen came, but hadn't seen everything there is to see. Katie saw quite a bit when she was there on St. Patrick's Day, so she took me to a couple parks. We also went to the National Gallery of Art for a little while. We did quite a bit of walking that day. We went to a park that had a statue of Oscar Wilde sitting up on a rock, and I climbed up to get a picture on it, which was an interesting climb up and climb down!

Beginning my climb

getting closer

on Oscar's lap

We spent the night in Dublin airport to save money rather than getting a hostel. We crashed outside the Starbucks in the food court area. I slept for a half hour--and that was at 7 in the morning! I was wide awake. Katie slept for awhile; I guarded the luggage and did word searches. It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I'd better get used to it because I'll probably be doing the same thing this coming weekend when we go to Brussels and when we go to Rome!

Sunday, March 28, 2010: Our plane was supposed to leave at 10:55 AM but ended up being delayed for about 45 minutes because of air traffic regulations. I was getting super tired at this point, but slept for most of the plane ride. It was cool seeing Ireland from the sky! We got to the airport in France, which was Beauvais, and it is about a little over an hour away from actual Paris. We were able to get on a shuttle bus right away and were off to Paris! I have to admit, I was a little overwhelmed by the fact that I wasn't in Ireland anymore! Our next job was to find the hostel. The only map of Paris we had was in my Europe book. It was fairly simple enough to read, but our hostel ended up being all the way across town from where the bus dropped us off. We really didn't want to pay for a taxi, and weren't sure how to navigate the Metro system yet, even though some nice man tried helping us, so we walked for like TWO hours. The first landmark I recognized was the Arc De Triomphe. I was starting to get tired and very weary and was convinced we'd never find it, when Katie called the hostel and it turns out it was just ahead of us! We checked in, dropped our luggage off in the room, shared a pizza in the hostel restaurant, showered and then were in bed. I was OUT. I don't remember the last time I slept that deeply.

Au revoir, Ireland!

Arc De Triomphe!

Monday, March 29, 2010: We started the day off by going on a free walking tour that is done by a company in many different cities in Europe. Katie had been on the one in Edinburgh, Scotland when she went with Amanda and Liz last month.

When we first started getting dressed, we started talking to another girl in our hostel. Her name is Abbey and she's from Florida. She just graduated from UF in December and was traveling around Europe for 7 weeks. We had breakfast with her, and went on the walking tour together. The walking tour was great. Our guide was a young guy named Alex who was originally from New Zealand and he was full of energy and made it very interesting. I actually learned a great deal of French history. He told us a pretty gruesome story of how they executed the man who killed King Henry IV. Well, execute is putting it delicately. It was pretty gross. Anyway, we went across one bridge that had all these "love locks" on it. Then Alex said that this was the bridge that Big professes his love to Carrie on the Sex and the City finale. According to Abbey and Katie my face lit up haha. I really love the series finale of that show! Some other highlights of the tour are the prison where Marie Antoinette was kept before she was beheaded, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, Tulerie Gardens, the fountain where Anne Hathaway throws her phone away in The Devil Wears Prada, etc. We had a lunch break, and Abbey, Katie and I each had a croque monsieur, which is sort of like a grilled cheese. I instantly recognized it when we were at the restaurant because it was one of my favorite words in high school French when we learned about food and I was somewhat excited to be able to have one, haha. Here are pictures from the walking tour.

Notre Dame

Love locks

The Sex and the City Bridge :P That's what I'm calling it. It's really Pon du Arts

Katie and I outside the Louvre

Guess which fountain this is?

After the free walking tour wrapped up, we talked to Alex for a little while and then decided to go with him to buy tickets for the Montmarte tour that would be later that night. Montmarte is an area of Paris where a number of famous painters like Picasso and Van Gogh lived, and is on a big hill. We also bought a ticket to go on the Versaille tour, which is the palace where King Louis the 14th and Marie Antoinette lived. Alex was leading these two tours also! He also gave me and Katie some very helpful knowledge. Our immigration cards for Ireland proved we were leaving in the European Union, which would give us free admission to a number of Paris attractions, including the Louvre! We were pumped. It was like getting a little money back for the cards, since they cost 150 Euro.
The Montmarte tour was really cool. It met in front of the Moulin Rouge! We saw Van Gogh's old apartment, a cafe where Picasso drew the waitresses in an attempt to get free meals, and an old art studio that a number of artists lived before they made it big. Alex told us Van Gogh's life story, and boy, he was really messed up. I knew he cut his ear off, but I didn't know he did it for a woman he was interested in! How very romantic. It started pouring during this tour, there was even a little lightening! One of the last stops was a beautiful white church called Sacre-Couer, or Sacred Heart that overlooks Paris. The view was phenomenal! The tour ended at a wine bar where we were all treated to a free glass of wine. A husband and wife on the tour bought platters of cheese and meat and bread baskets! Yum. After that, Abbey, Katie and I went in search of a place to eat dinner. We found a cute little restaurant and decided to eat outside. I had pasta carbonara. This guy started playing the violin and I thought I recognized the song, and I looked over at him,and suddenly he smiled and then came up to me and was like rubbing his fingers together, like he wanted me to pay him. I was kind of confused, but decided to give him a little change, but suddenly he was beckoning me for a 2 Euro coin. I was like what the hell? and ended up just giving it to him to get him out of my face. I was annoyed though. Then these other guys kept coming up to us trying to tell sell us flowers. That sort of thing is probably not legal and is probably considered soliciting, because they only did it when the waitress was inside. Well, I will end this post with some pictures from the Montmarte tour and then write about the rest of the week another time soon!

The Moulin Rouge!

Van Gogh's apartment

Awesome view of a Parisian street

Sacre-Couer

view of Paris

our new friend Abbey!

Adventures with Mom

At long last, my mom made it to Ireland after 3 delayed planes! Their plane was delayed Saturday the 13th because of rain storms and high wind in Newark, where their first flight was headed. They were unable to get on another flight until Monday...and my mom's friends Judy and Lauri decided to get their money back on their flights because they didn't want to miss so much of the tour. My mom's friend Bonnie was still coming with.

Well, Monday their flight out to Newark was delayed about 2 hours because of heavy air traffic control in Newark. They ended up missing their connecting flight to Dublin, but luckily they could make one that was at like 9:40 or something. Well, then they had to wait around for the NC marching band to arrive and connect on the flight. They ended up not leaving until after 11 PM.

They were able to meet up with their tour group in Killarney, even though there was only one day left on the tour. That's where our story begins, the next day (St. Paddy's Day, which I have already written about.)

The rest of our adventures begin on Thursday. Bonnie and Mom planned to sleep in, but I think they were still wired because they had been up late Wednesday night and still woke up relatively early Thursday morning. I met them down at the hotel. We planned the rest of the time that they'd be here, which was until Sunday the 21st. After that, we we went to St. Mary's Cathedral. My mom wanted to see an Irish graveyard. Then we went to King John's Castle, which was my THIRD Time there. I didn't really know where else to take them in Limerick, and I figured they'd want to see a castle. It's so funny--when we first got here I thought King John's Castle looked so cool...but now I never want to go there again! My mom and Bonnie liked it, which matters more! But all I'm going to say is that if anybody else decides to come visit and wants to see what's in Limerick...you're on your own!

After King John's, we stopped at Arabica coffee shop and had a late lunch of paninis and coffee. I discovered Arabica when Ellen visited. It's right across from the George hotel. it's soooo good and they put designs in the foam! Here is the "smiling sun" from my dark mocha.

I went back to my house in Plassey again that night. The next day we were planning to go to Cashel, where I've already been but it was part of the tour that they missed. I spent Thursday night at Stables with Katie Roz and Amanda. For a Thursday night, which is usually a big night at Stables, it was DEAD. Everyone was either out of town...most likely in Dublin...or hungover from Paddy's Day. I ended up having a blast though...they had a band that was pretty good, and then they played music and I danced a lot.

Friday, I went to my 9 am class and then we went to Cashel, which meant stopping in Cahir like last time to switch buses. We didn't go inside the castle this time, but we did the Riverside Walk around it which was nice. We stopped at a gift shop too and then boarded the bus to Cashel.

at Cahir Castle

Mom at Hore Abbey

We checked out Hore Abbey (I was perfectly fine with coming back there...I really think it's beautiful) and then we hit up the Rock of Cashel. It started raining just as we got in to the pub we were going to eat at, Feehan's. We had lunch and Bulmer's, and then luckily made an earlier bus back to Cahir because the bus was late and we got out there after the scheduled time. It rained the entire way back and was pouring as we walked from the bus station to the George. I spent the night at the hotel Friday.

Saturday, we got up, got more coffee at Arabica (I think I'm in love with that place) I showed them the university, which is when I realized that I honestly think I've spent more time at Stables then in the library!!! Although I may have changed that this week. This is the first week in awhile where I didn't set foot inside Stables. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Chocolat. You can probably guess by the name of it that it was DELICIOUS. I had a pesto chicken fettucine. We all got a dessert platter with three 3 different types of desserts on it. Yum yum yum. After that, we caught a bus to Bunratty. I was hoping to go inside the castle since I was in need of going to a new castle, but my mom and Bonnie didn't want to go inside since it was more expensive. They wanted to check out the gift stores that were around it. This is when I was starting to get antsy. In addition to going to many of the same places in Limerick, I've also been inside numerous gift shops and browsed through a ton of tourist knickknacks. I was getting slightly bored. I tried to stay chipper, but my patience with shopping was waning. I did end up buying a photography book of Ireland. We also went inside one of the oldest pubs in Ireland, Durty Nelly's, was established in 1620!

Saturday night we went out for pizza (the one we got had jalepenos on it, and even though I picked them off my mouth felt like it was on fire. It was terrible. I'm such a wimp when it comes to spicy foods!) Then we went to Dolan's Pub for some Bulmer's and Irish music!

At Dolan's (that's Berry Bulmers in the glass!)

Sunday we took a tour to Blarney Castle and Cork (I had no idea Cork was the 2nd biggest city in Ireland) There were only like 10 of us on the tour, as it was the first one of the company's season. I kissed the Blarney stone!!! I was a little wary of kissing it because it is supposed to be super unsanitary, but in the end I couldn't resist. It was scary though, you have to hold on to these two bars at the top of the castle, and hang over to kiss it, and there is a guy who's job is literally to stand there and hold people all day so they don't fall. After Blarney we headed over to Cork, which was only about 15 minutes away. We ate lunch at a place called O'Brien's Sandwiches and we all had a Shamrock roll, which was a chicken sandwich with pesto on a shamrock shaped bun. It was really good, but I had herbs in my teeth after for sure! We walked along the main street in Cork and looked in some stores.

We got back in to Limerick at about 5:00 or so. My mom and Bonnie got their luggage from the hotel storage room and we walked to the bus station so they could take a bus to Shannon Airport. Their flight left at 8 AM the next morning, and they got a hotel room that is just steps away from the airport (Shannon Airport isn't that big.) I was so glad she came!! She said one of the same things I said when I first got here "I keep telling myself I'm in Ireland!" I'm so glad she came to visit because she wasn't 100% sure about it before I left. But Ireland is amazing so, of course she ended up coming! :)

Well, today is the first day of Easter Holiday or Vacation or whatever, or as we know it in America...SPRING BREAK. I'm going to Paris with Katie for 6 whole days. A lot of people are country hopping, but it will be nice to be able to take our time and soak up as much of it as we can. I didn't really feel that antsy during the week...but today it hit me. I'm going to PARIS!!! It's my first time out of Ireland! Tomorrow we are going to Dublin because that's where we are flying out of. I still have more of Dublin to see, and then we are going to crash at the airport and our plane leaves at like 10:55 Sunday morning. I am sure I will have tons to write about when I get back!

St. Paddy's Day...Not St. Patty's Day!

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to spend a St. Patrick's Day in Ireland! It was one of the days of the entire semester I was most excited for, besides my 21st birthday in 2 weeks!

When I first got accepted to study abroad in Ireland and told my Grandma, she said all excitedly: "You can drink beer!" which was pretty funny since dying beer green in America is a pretty common occurrence. However, I was really in the St. Patrick's day spirit and decided to go to the store and I got some green food coloring. I for some reason got 2 little mini bottles...which was way more than I needed, but I guess I can use it next year!

Wednesday we didn't have school since it's obviously a very important holiday in Ireland. A lot of international students went to Dublin, but since I was expecting my mom in Limerick that evening, stayed in Limerick. My friends Amanda and Liz were also here, and Amanda's friend Carolyn joined us. We walked all the way down to City Centre for the parade because the buses weren't running yet and we didn't want to pay for a taxi. It actually wasn't a bad walk. I wouldn't want to do it alone though...having company definitely made it bearable.

As we were walking there, most of us wearing green, we noticed not many people on the streets were wearing green and I was like "oh Great. They don't get that in to it here." However, as we neared City Centre, the people decked in Green came crawling out of the woodwork. O'Connell Street, the main street downtown, was crawling with St. Patrick's Day celebrators. Before the parade started, we went to McDonald's and of course got Shamrock Shakes. The pricing in Ireland is so weird. I had gotten 2 smalls on previous occasions, for 2.50 each. However, that day I learned that a large was only 2.60!! A small extra price to pay for a considerable extra amount of shake.




We started to get all jealous of people because we didn't have any St. Patrick's Day memorabilia, which is rather funny because all semester we had seen it in stores and could have bought it at any time! Amanda and I ended up each buying a flag, as shown in the picture above. We found a decent spot along the street where we could easily see the parade, which ended up being only so-so. There was a lot of music, but not really any Irish music. There were a lot of city businesses advertising and people dressed up in silly outfits, and a lot of groups of other nationalities being represented which was cool, but we ended up getting bored after an hour or so while the parade was still going.

I texted my roommate Sean and asked him how his "St. Patty's Day" was going and he texted back and said "St. Patty's??" That, apparently, is the American faux pas way of spelling it and in Ireland it is shortened by saying "St. Paddy's." I then had to laugh when I saw people back home writing on Facebook "Happy St. Patty's Day!"

We walked back up to the campus and then I went to Stables with Amanda and Carolyn.There was stuff going on there all day. We went at about 4 PM. I wondered if many people would be there already since it seemed kind of early, but yeah...THERE WERE PEOPLE THERE! the place was hopping. We each bought a drink. We didn't really know anyone else there, so we just stood and observed everyone else's drunken antics. That's when my mom texted me and said they were on their way to their hotel in Limerick from Bunratty, which is only 20 minutes away. We finished our drinks and then I grabbed a taxi and headed to the hotel, which is the same one Ellen and Julie stayed in when they came!

I was so happy to finally see my mom and happy she made it to Ireland after all her difficulties! Her planes had ended up being delayed 3 times. The first day obviously...and then Monday it got delayed for about an hour and a half because of heavy air traffic, out of MSP to Newark again. Then her plane to Dublin got delayed because they were waiting for connecting passengers on the flight. She and her friend Bonnie who came with met up with their tour group in Killarney, and they managed to still see a traditional Irish farm and the Cliffs of Moher before getting to Limerick, which was the end of their tour.

When I got to their hotel room, Bonnie was having some difficulties with the tour bus driver because her bag had been misplaced because she wasn't aware of the loading procedures since she missed most of the tour. There was some major frustrations, but then after we got it straightened out we went to dinner at a restaurant called The Bailey. My mom was excited because our waiter had red hair just like her! She joked he was her long lost son. His name was Gary...short for Gearoid (Guh-road) just like my roommate. My mom tried Bulmer's cider and really liked it--the pear too! We had a very good dinner--Bonnie and Mom had fish and chips and I had Irish stew.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel for a little while and then I headed back to campus again. All in all, it was a very nice St. Paddy's Day!!