Dublin, Belfast and. . . Shakespeare??

So Sharon and I departed from Edinburgh at 10:30 at night to arrive in Dublin an hour later and spend 9 hours in the Dublin Airport praying that the airport police would keep interrogating the guy over at the other bench and leave us alone. We were happy when we finally left because it was sunny and metal benches suck, but then we got into the city and it was ugly- think endless horizon of Industrial Revolution-esque brick buildings! However, Dublin's saving grace was its massive gorgeous parks and sweet cathedrals!

St. Stephen's Park (and Sharon)

The city was a bit sketchy too and we were told to be careful in the area around the Guinness brewery, which of course is where I wandered around alone while Sharon toured Guinness. I wasn’t too worried though because I saw an elderly lady walking by herself and she wasn’t getting mugged, so I figured I was fine! St. Patrick’s Cathedral was sweet, we were befriended by a caretaker who took out his keys and let us into the Lady Chapel where tourists aren’t allowed! Oh yeah! This is also the church where Jonathan Swift was minister!

A stone from the well that St. Patrick used to baptise converts. . .supposedly.

The crypt in Christ Church Cathedral

After two days in the Ugly City we left for Belfast which is an amazing city (lots of shopping centres, even one in a cathedral!!)Our first day we just cruised around and checked out the Botanic Gardens and with its greenhouses built in the 1800s!

Flowers in the Palm House

Tropical Ravine. This flower is bigger than my hand!!

The next day we did a bus tour to the northern coast to Giant’s Causeway.

I just really like this picture of the huge waves- it was crazy windy!

The rocks!They were huge!

We also hit up Derry which is where Bloody Sunday happened, a sobering experience- that was some crazy stuff that happened!

One of the many murals depicting the Conflict.

On our very last day we went for a hike in the hills of Belfast, specifically Cave Hill, we kind of assumed there would be a bunch of caves- we found one.

The one cave.

It was crazy windy at the top and it started to rain, so it felt like we were being attacked with knives, but it was worth it! Of course, by the time we got back down it was blue skies all around!

We hiked out onto that edge!

Sharon had decided to get her hair cut, and once she did I was jealous of her clean, styled hair so I got mine cut too. The lady who did my hair almost had a heart attack because the hike earlier had turned my hair into a disaster area (her reaction, and I quote, was “Merry Christmas!!”) That night we decided that it was time to splurge after a week of peanut butter sandwiches and went out for dinner. I gorged on protein- steak, pork, sausage, back bacon, and an egg, and of course no veggies! (Although, strangely enough I had started to crave broccoli by the end of the break)

The clock tower in Belfast- proof you don't need to go all the way to Italy to see a leaning tower!

We travelled back home the next day via plane and train and were super pumped when we ran into some of the gang at the Oxford train station!
And that was the end of our trip!

Monday was the first day of Drama Week. Everyone was so pumped to see each other and we were all so hyper the whole day, poor Glena, our director!

This is Glena!

Our production was called Shakespearean Confusions and it was a collage of scenes from various plays in which people think people are people they’re not. I was Longaville in Love’s Labour’s Lost (I dress up like a Russian and try to woo Laura, who I think is Sharon- but she totally shoots me down!) and Malvolio in Twelfth Night (for any She’s the Man fans, it’s Malcolm!) I had to be pompous and bossy (that’s kind of close to sarcastic and huffy, right Eric?). We practiced every day from 9 to 4 and performed it on Friday night, so it was a crazy intense week. In the end, though, it was totally worth it because we all had tons of fun and did a whole lot of bonding (plus I look so incredibly hot dressed up as a man!)

Three merry men be we! (Gabby, Beth, and me)