IRELAND!!!!!!!!!

It is day two here in Ireland! We arrived yesterday at 6am. We were totally exhausted by that point and were really only functioning on our adrenaline! I still CANNOT believe I am in Europe! Ive wanted to come visit here all my life and now I'm finally here! Ahhhhhhhhh!

I won't be able to put pictures up for awhile because I just have my iPad and no place to plug my camera in. But I should be able to add pictures once I get to Spain.

Dublin is absolutely incredible! It's so surreal being here in this country that ive only read about in books. The cobblestone streets and sidewalks are gorgeous and the streets upon streets of beautiful old shops and apartments stretch out in every direction! It's just thrilling to turn each corner and find an even more amazing view at every turn and the catholic churches just take your breath away. The magnitude and magnificence of these buildings just blows my mind.

We went to the Chester Beatty library yesterday. There aren't really any books but they did have amazing galleries and a very cool Japanese garden on the roof. On one floor they had displays of religious writings and I saw original pages from the books of the disciples, the book of Genesis and of Esther. That was definitely a surreal moment seeing those. And that wasn't just because I was only running on 2 hours of sleep within the past 30 hours!

We went and walked around in the gorgeous St. Stephens square yesterday where were beautiful flowers just budding, a lovely pond, bridges, oh and I saw two swans! In learned that this was the main square where people would be held in stocks, whipped, and even hung. I saw exactly where it used to happen. That was kind of a disturbing part of the square but it really is a huge part of any countries history as that used to be a common happening so it was cool, in a way, to see.

It was about 50 degrees here yesterday. It was beautiful out but a bit chilly with the wind. The grass is green and the trees all are budding and their are flowers everywhere!

Some things vie observed:
1. Everyone smokes, and I mean just about EVERYONE!
2. Irish accents are THE COOLEST THING EVER!
3. I'm having a very hard time controlling my excitement and I'm afraid I stand out as a total tourist!
4. There aren't that many red haired people.
5. History is absolutely everywhere here and I LOVE IT!
6. The tea here is VERY strong!
7. The cars driving on the opposite side of the road is psyching me out and I think I'm going to get hit because I always forget to look the right way before I cross the road!
8. People dress much nicer here, for the most part.
9. Irish people are very friendly and happy.
10. Europe is so way cooler than America!