Cashel-Cahir-Cork

View from the Rock of Cashel

The plan was for Laura and I to wake up early and help Brittany bring her stuff down to the cab then say goodbye to Stacy, Stevie, and Britt before their American Airlines flight back to O'Hare International Airport. Things didn't happen that way though. As Laura and I were about to come downstairs to help Brittany came to our door and told us that their flight had been cancelled due to the menacing volcanic ash cloud. So naturally I went back to bed until I had to wake up to head off our our Irish oddessey.

After resting a bit Laura rushed into my room (where I was sleeping on the couch because Grace was sleeping in my bed) telling me that Stevie had found another flight and was leaving right away and we had to say goodbye/find her a cab. We got down there and the cab company was being a pain on the phone so I rushed out into campus to see if I could with some luck flag down a cab.

And I did have some luck because as I ran outside I ran into Stacy who had called a cab and was waiting for it. She too had found another flight and was heading off to the airport so Stevie split the cab with her and they were on their way back to the United States.

I was packing for our trip, as was Laura, when I gchatted Brittany to ask if she wanted to food that she gave me back since she was staying a couple extra days (her new flight was on Tuesday). She said no and asked if I knew what Stevie and Stacy were doing. I told her that they had already gotten on a 10:30 flight back to the US and she was bummed that she would be in Dublin alone so I invited her on our trip, which she accepted, and after saying goodbye to Jenni, our little Canadian friend, we were off.

While on the bus to our first stop, Cashel, I called our hostel and got Brittany a bed in our room which worked out well. And after riding the bus bus for  while we got to Cashel, home of the Rock of Cashel, an old castle turned church turned ruin. It is located on the Plain of Tipperary and the surroundings are absolutely gorgeous. Here are some pictures to prove it.

Me, Brittany, Laura

The Rock

Sisters

While at the Rock we just sat down, enjoyed the view, and ate the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies Grace made (and waited the two hours until the next bus). It was good craic.

Our next stop was Cahir where Cahir Castle was located (creative name I know). Unfortunately, the castle was closed for tours but we got to see the outside which was cute. We also went in search for dinner in the town of Cahir and found a dive restaurant to eat at. And when I say dive, I mean there was an ant crawling on the table and I avoided anything with meat or claiming to be meat. After two hours, another bus came and we were on the final leg of that day to Cork.

Cahir Castle

We got to Cork no problem and made our way to the hostel that we booked. On the way, a friendly Irishman saw that we were tourists and asked where we were from. We responded Chicago and he said, "God bless you, God bless Chicago!" More proof that the Irish are the friendliest people out there.

We made it to the Aaran House Hostel no problem and the hostess was so nice. The property was very clean and Grace asked if all hostels were like this; I told her that this was the nicer end of what hostels offer. There was also a dog at the hostel that was cute and if it misbehaved the lady of the house was not afraid to put it in its place.

We went to bed early that night and rested up for the adventures ahead.

Europe Versus the Volcano

As many of you may know, thousands of travellers are stranded in various destinations due to a cloud of volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Apparently the ash clogs the engines and makes planes stop working, something I would not want to happen while in the air. Therefore, flights have been cancelled since Wednesday (at least from the UK). Some flights are supposed to be resumed today (Tuesday) but there are questions of when all flights will start running as usual, especially with the threat of another cloud of ash coming our way.

We were taking the bus into the city the other day and Brittany mentioned how empty the city seemed. I said, "Well I guess there aren't any tourists, except the ones that are stuck here." Jen had her flight to Scotland cancelled and Stevie was supposed to have friends coming in last weekend but they weren't able to. Dorothy, our favorite Irish grandmother, was unable to come to the Farewell Dinner because she was stuck in Barcelona with her husband, and Kayla, one of my friends from class, was supposed to come back to Dublin from Turkey this weekend but is stuck there until at least Friday. Cambridge has cancelled its final exams. I hear that trains, buses, and ferries are booked at over a week in advance. I've even heard of people travelling 100 hours to get back to Dublin!

One of the better stories I've heard is about a boy who went for a weekend in Portugal and for some reason his credit card wouldn't work or he did have one on him. He was stuck in Portugal without any way to pay for housing and food so he had to pick oranges to earn some money.

I'm supposed to go to Italy on Friday for a week. I think that I will be able to fly there by then but my concerns are a) not being able to fly back because of another ash cloud and b) not being able to get transportation from Rome to Florence or Venice due to the high demand for buses and trains. Our Plan B if we can't get a train or bus is to rent a car and go on an Italian roadtrip. That could be pretty epic.