Letters To Grace: Apparently It's Not All That Long Of A Way To Tipperary

Dear Grace,

The first day of this Ireland trip was without a doubt the longest day of my life. The reason for this being as follows: went to Wales, took a ferry to Ireland at 2:45 am, and then immediately had another full day of sightseeing.

We got up at around 5:30 or 6:00 Monday morning after spending our last night there in our beloved flat. It's weird to think that I'll never be going back to that place that was my home for such a short and yet such an important time in my life. We didn't have enough time to get teary over leaving it, however, because very quickly Betsy, Lindsey, and I all realized that we were the last people in the flat, and there was still a mess to be cleaned up as well as the garbage to be taken out. So basically we worked at lightning speed to clean the place up before dropping off our keys and booking it out of there to get to the bus. I didn't even have time to look back.

Our first stop of the day was Tintern Abbey in the lovely land of Wales.

I believe I have stated before that I love ruins like this, so I greatly enjoyed myself prancing around the grounds getting pictures and walking along walls and former-pillars.

Next, we stopped in a nearby town to see the ruins of an old Roman bathhouse, as well as an old Roman arena. Sadly this happened to be a very wet and rainy day, and as I was climbing up the slope to stand on top of the arena I totally slipped and fell face-first in the mud.

Basically, the coat survived but the jeans were toast.

Next we stopped at a living history museum where I learned a couple of episodes of Dr. Who had been filmed, so that was fun. The grounds were GORGEOUS, and I wish my camera didn't suck so bad at capturing the majesty of places like this, but just believe me when I say that it was beyond beautiful.

It was there that Rose and I stopped into an adorable tea shop where I tried my very first Welsh cake (because apparently they're a thing here).

Next stop, Cardiff!

We immediately got off the bus and went exploring Cardiff castle, which had a gorgeous manor house with exquisitely decorated rooms filled with many leather-bound books and smelled of mahogany...

Then we were left to explore the city for the evening. I hung out with Rose for the rest of the day, and I learned that Cardiff is filled with tons of little "arcades," which are like alleys that have been converted into the wings of an indoor mall all over the city.

After spending an entire day on our feet, what should we stumble across but a set of massage chairs. We still had like fifteen or twenty minutes before the bus was coming to pick us up, so we both sank gratefully into the chairs. Even though I didn't have any change to pay for the chair massage, I've never enjoyed such a lovely feeling of having my entire body cradled ever before. Too soon we got kicked out by the mall security guard who was closing up, and we were forced to go walk to the bus.

We rode the bus to Fishguard, where we drove onto a ferry and were promptly kicked off and forced to go up into the passenger area for the ride. It was three in the morning, but at first I was too excited to go to sleep. I've never been on a boat that big before, so of course I had to run up to the top deck and stand out in the wind and breathe in the salt air for a bit.

Finally I did manage to fall asleep on a bench somewhere, and when I woke up at 6:30 it was finally light enough to see out the windows, where I saw this:

My very first glimpse of Ireland! After enjoying the scenery for a minute, it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't brushed my teeth the night before, and my toothbrush was still down in the storage area of the coach. In other words, it hadn't occurred to me at all that I would need a toothbrush and a change of knickers for the day, since we hadn't technically gone to bed that night. All the same, I was relieved to realize I hadn't been the only one, and most of us brushed our teeth with our fingers with toothpaste Betsy kindly shared with us.

After we had boarded the bus again and left the ferry, I was finally able to get a picture of it as we drove past:

No time for sleep, of course. We immediately headed to Kilkenny (pronounced kill-kenny - I know, I was making the South Park jokes too), where we toured Kilkenny castle, and then had a tour of the Rothe House (I don't know what the historical significance of Rothe House is, but we went there, so there you go).

After that we drove out to see the beautifully haunting Rock of Cashel:

I'm well aware that this is a professional photo, but this definitely captures the beauty of the place a lot better than the shots I got. Partly because my camera sucketh, but also because half of the ruins were covered in scaffolding.

I stumbled across this sign pointing the way to Tipperary, so at this point apparently it's not all that long of a way to Tipperary after all :)

Finally we arrived in the lovely little town of Limerick, where we checked into our hotel and then Rose, Ryan, and I all set out in search of a place to eat dinner at. After much searching, we finally found a tavern that was open and still serving traditional Irish food for dinner. When we asked for tap water to drink, our waiter returned with this pitcher:

So of course I had to make the joke "I don't always drink in a pub, but when I do, it's water."

We enjoyed a lovely meal (I had lamb stew) and then, after the longest day of my life, Rose and I returned to our hotel room and literally collapsed into our beds for a much needed sleep.