Me, Mom, Sheep, and Chips

     For the last week and a half of break, my mom came to visit and we traveled all around Ireland, Northern Ireland, and London. We started off with a tour of the west coast of Ireland. We spent our first night in Glaway, which has a nice downtown pedestrian area. Ireland has loads of sheep so they make a lot of sweaters. We basically ate some dinner and went in about 10 sweater shops. My mom and I used to not be such great shopping buddies, but now I think our team shopping skills have shaped up quite nicely. Perhaps a day full of cute sheep was helpful to group shopping. The next day we went to the Cliffs of Moher, which are absolutely gorgeous. To my mom's dismay, we were unable to find a puffin, but we did see lots of other cool birds. We took some postcard worthy photos and then headed off to see the Blarney Castle. The castle is most well known for the Blarney stone, which is a stone that gives you the gift of eloquent speech for 7 years. You've got to climb up to the top of the castle and then lay on your back and hold onto a bar and hoist yourself up to kiss the stone. Let's hope the legend is true and both of us have got 7 years of eloquence to look forwards to. If anything, the adventure worked up my mom's appetite for chips (i.e. french fries) and she became an instant fan. We continued our little Irish adventure by going around the Dingle Peninsula. We saw the beehive huts, which are stone huts thought to be built in the 12th century. On the other end of the historic timeline, we saw where they are filming the new Star Wars! On the way back to Dublin we stopped at Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall. Barack Obama's great-great-great grandfather was from Moneygall and immigrated to the US, so Obama went there to visit in 2011 and naturally the town needed to name a giant rest stop gas station the "Barack Obama Plaza". After embracing our American-ness for a tiny bit, it was back to Dublin. The next day we had a free day and decided to go to Kilmainham Gaol which is a former prison. The British kept many members of the IRA there. After the 1916 uprising some of the main leaders were jailed and then executed there. It is only visitable by guided tour and they were all booked, but we got super lucky and got on the waiting list and eventually got to go on one. The tour was definitely worth the wait and one of the best guided tours we'd been on.

     The next day we said goodbye to the Republic of Ireland and went to Northern Ireland, the 6 counties that remain part of the UK, thus we also made the currency change to pounds and adjusted our ears to the strong northern Irish accent. We did the Black Taxi Tour of west Belfast, which was fascinating. The taxi driver takes you to the neighborhood where there is still a wall up between the British (Protestant) side and the Irish (Catholic) side. Each side looks so distinct, with different flags and political murals. They still close the gate each evening. Conflict in Northern Ireland ended in the 1990s, but they think that it's best to leave the wall up for now as the conflict is still so fresh and they don't want to cause any conflict. On a lighter note, Belfast is also known for being the building site of the Titanic, so we went to the "Titanic Experience" and learned a lot about the building and saw the port where it was constructed. We also ventured all the way north to see the Giant's Causeway which is a rock formation of hexagonal basalt pillars that is leftover from volcanic tectonic occurrences millions of years ago (that's about the extent of my geological knowledge). The legend about the giant who built it is way cooler, but I'll tell that part to you in person (since my horrible story telling skills are at least slightly more comical in person).

     Then it was time to return to my temporary home country of England and experience London. Neither of us had ever explored London, so we were both ready for an adventure. We went on one of those super touristy (but pretty great) hop on hop off busses. We stopped for a bit to see some Van Gogh at the National Gallery and the changing of the cavalry guard. We of course saw the London Eye, Big Ben, the Tower Bridge (which is the really impressive one that people, including myself, usually think is London Bridge), and the Tower of London. We took a river cruise on the Thames back towards the center and then went on a guided tour of the House of Parliament, which was incredible. You can't take pictures, but the inside was so ornately decorated and full of odd traditions and history. The next day we took a day trip out to Stonehenge with my friend Shanaz who is studying abroad in London. I honestly thought Stonehenge would just be super touristy, but it was actually really peaceful and impressive. And there were sheep... always adds to the scenery. On our night out in London we went to the theater to see Billy Elliot. To quote an anonymous reviewer "If I was in London again, I'd just go to the theater every night, that's it". 

The Cliffs of Moher

Kissing the Blarney Stone

Visiting the Wall on the Black Taxi Tour 

Me and Shanaz at Stonehenge