My Verbal Vomit

Ireland: Day 6

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Kelly

So when I last left you, I was dying in our hotel lobby waiting to board the bus to Galway.

Immediately following this photo I ran to the bathroom to puke up the croissant I ate at bfast

Immediately following this photo I ran to the bathroom to puke up the croissant I ate at breakfast

You know what’s really helpful to a raging hangover accompanied by extreme nausea? Traveling on a coach bus all day on twisty, windy roads. I managed to curl up across some bus seats and sleep a little bit before reaching our first stop of the day, the Connemara Marble Factory.

marble

Not going to lie, I don’t remember much of what was said, as I was mostly focused on not vomiting, but it was still pretty cool. Col and I got our mom a really pretty bracelet featuring the different colors of marble and the Claddagh sign. Much too soon it was time to get back on the bus to continue north, and I was not doing well. Luckily I had the foresight to grab a plastic laundry bag from the hotel before we left and let’s just say it came in handy. A few times. Despite the fact that I literally wanted to throw myself in front of our bus and put myself out of my misery, I wasn’t willing to miss out on Galway (and I didn’t want my sister to hate me). So I sucked it up and shuffled about for two hours once we made it there.

Galway Cathedral

contemplating praying for my soul

Shop Street

Galway was really pretty and I wish I could have stomached the smell of food so we could have eaten at one of the great little places there. Col and I have already decided that when we go back (hopefully with husbands also of Irish heritage) that we want to stay in Galway some and definitely along the western coast.

We finally made it back to Dublin for our final night of the trip around 5:30, at which point I collapsed into a bed and took a delightful nap. Miraculously I woke up feeling almost normal and we were able to eat one final meal in Ireland before our balls ass early flight the next morning. If you’re keeping track, that means I kept nothing down until 8 pm when I ate about half a delicious cheeseburger. Col finally got some fish and chips, which she declared THE BEST EVER, and then it was time to pack up and get ready to leave. Our shuttle to the airport left at 5:30 am, and I shed a tear or two as I bid farewell to the best vacation ever.

Luckily we had our mom’s wedding to look forward to the next day, so there was no time to be sad!

Filed under: Daily | Tagged: cannemara, galway, Ireland, travel | Leave a Comment »

Ireland: Day 5

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Kelly

Also known as, my favorite day of vacation. We woke up to clear sunny skies, and trek up the western coast ahead of us. On the agenda? The Cliffs of Moher and a medieval feast in an actual castle. We left Killarney at 8:30 am, and headed north eventually reaching the Shannon Estuary which we had to cross on a ferry.

Western Ireland coastline

Lighthouse we passed while on the ferry

just a little windy out there on the water

Once we cross the river, it was back on the bus for more driving through County Shannon. We FINALLY made it to the Cliffs of Moher around noon and I was immediately in awe. They are legitimately the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I took nearly 100 photos of just these alone. I’m so happy that of all days to have perfect clear weather, it was this day.

panoramic view

I really don’t think words can do them justice

so pretty

sister and I trying to ignore our apparent fear of heights and plunging to our deaths

hiking the trail

death grip

the prettiest

I could continue to post pictures, but I think you get the idea. It was gorgeous and terrifying, especially when the giant gusts of wind would nearly knock you off your feet. After leaving the cliffs, we continued on to a town called Bunratty. Which from what I could tell, consisted of our hotel, a castle, some shopping and Durty Nelly’s. It was the cutest. We checked in and had some time to kill before dinner, so we did some shopping and then took advantage of the awesome weather with some beers outside.

Durty Nelly’s!

drinking a Kilkenny

oh ya know, just hanging out next to a castle

Bunratty Castle Hotel

After our drinks it was time for our medieval feast! It was tons of fun and the food was really delicious, the wine was not, but I still drank a gallon of it. We weren’t allowed to use any utensils, so there was a lot of soup drinking and finger licking. It was interesting.

drinking our soups

After dinner a bunch of people in our group ventured back over to Durty Nelly’s where I proceeded to get the drunkest I had been the entire trip. It was delightful, at the time. I met the man of my dreams and was completely embarrassing and inappropriate, but I was on vacation and tequila makes me nuttso. Oh yeah, the man of my dreams and I did tequila shots together, after I had already taken Jameson shots.

ya know what I didn’t need. Jameson and tequila shots

Anyway, after I was finally done falling in love and repeatedly telling this guy how much he looked like Tom Hardy and how much I liked his tattoos, I drug myself to bed (we’ll say it was 2 am) and proceeded to die. When my alarm went off at 7 am the next morning I was most definitely still drunk, and would have appreciated death. Unfortunately we had to head back to Dublin, so I had to pull it together.

FYI this is what pulling it together looked like. In the hotel lobby.

Up next, our final day in Ireland. Or as I like to call it; “The Day I Wandered Around Galway Wondering if I Could Vomit in the Street if Necessary.”

Filed under: Daily | Tagged: bunratty, cliffs of moher, durty nellys, Ireland, shannon estuary, vacation | 2 Comments »

Ireland: Day 4

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Kelly

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to… oh wait, is that not what we’re doing? Sorry I got confused for a minute. On our 4th day in Ireland, we set out from Killarney on a trip around the famous Ring of Kerry. This day can also be known as “the day it was sunny in the morning!” I’ll captions specific photos that are places I can remember, but we stopped at SO MANY places it’s hard to keep it straight .

The Ring of Kerry (Irish: Mórchuaird Chiarraí) is a tourist trail in County Kerry, south-western Ireland. The route covers the 179 km circular road (N70, N71, and R562 road), starting from Killarney, heading around the Iveragh Peninsula and passing through Kenmare,Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen and Killorglin. Popular points include Muckross House (near Killarney), Staigue stone fort and Derrynane House, home of Daniel O’Connell. Just south of Killarney, Ross Castle, Lough Leane, and Ladies View (a panoramic viewpoint), all located within Killarney National Park, are major attractions located along the Ring. A more complete list of major attractions along the Ring of Kerry includes: Gap of Dunloe, Bog Village, Rossbeigh Beach, Cahersiveen Heritage Centre, Derrynane House, Skellig Experience, Staigue Fort, Kenmare Lace, Moll’s Gap, Ladies View, Torc Waterfall, Muckross House, The Blue Pool, Ross Castle,Ogham Stones, St Mary’s Cathedral, Muckross Abbey, Franciscan Friary, Kellegy Church, O’Connell Memorial Church, Sneem Church and Cemetery, Skellig Michael, Beehive Cells and the Stone Pillars marking an important grave.

Dingle Bay

On this day, we also got to experience a Sheep Dog Herding demonstration. It was so cool. I mean I have never seen more well-trained dogs, so excited to do what they were naturally bred to do. They listened to both personalized vocal and whistle cues.

These sheep started pretty much out of sight at the top of a mountain, and the two dogs went up to get them and bring them down

Town of Cahersiveen as seen from Valencia Island where we checked out the Skellig Experience

Sneem River

Ladies View

At this point it was pouring freezing cold rain, I’d already fallen asleep on our bus once, and we were ready to be back at the hotel for some drinks and dinner. With an early departure for Bunratty the next morning we opted out of pub hopping again in Killarney and instead took some glasses of wine up to our room.

Once we got up there and turned on the TV, the news about Boston was just breaking (Ireland is 5 hours ahead) and we sat shocked and appalled in front of CNN for hours. It was a weird thing, being in a foreign country when something terrible is happening at home, I can’t describe it, but for some reason you just feel even more helpless. European news is also a lot more blunt and less sensitive with their coverage (at least I thought so), so I’m sure we saw and heard some things people at home did not. There were two couples from Boston in our tour group, who could do nothing but watch and wait from 3000 miles away. Day 4 was a great day, that ended on a horribly sad note.

Filed under: Daily | Tagged: Ireland, killarney, ring of kerry, travel | 1 Comment »

Ireland: Day 3

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Kelly

So I know I said I’d have another post about Ireland yesterday but I came down with what is either Tonsillitis or Strep Throat and have been dying ever since. Luckily for you guys my fever seems to have broken and I can somewhat function so I thought I’d post another recap. On our third day in Ireland we left Dublin and headed south through County Cork and County Kerry eventually ending our trip in Killarney.

Just one of the many farms full of sheep that we passed

Rock of Cashel

We stopped just outside of Cork to visit Blarney Castle and to kiss the Blarney Stone; something my sister and I weren’t quite prepared for. We knew there were a lot of stairs up to the top, but neither of us knew just how narrow and windy the staircase was, and we both almost had panic attacks.

just hanging out in front of Blarney Castle

Realizing just how much this walk up is going to suck

Taking a little breather in one of the side rooms off the stairs

so, so, cool

We finally made it to the top, and again I was not prepared for just how far out and down you had to lean to kiss that damn stone

I was THRILLED to be done

Col’s turn!

After climbing back down and regaining our composure we did some more exploring of the gorgeous grounds.

and we found a cave!

Eventually it was time to get back on the bus and continue on to Killarney to check into our hotel and get dinner, but not before I found some children’s toys to play with at a rest stop.

I definitely thought Killarney was one of the cutest towns we stayed in. Great Pubs too!

Col and I enjoying some post dinner drinks

Day three was definitely one of my favorites of the trip. We saw and did so much, our hotel was adorable and the town was cute!

Filed under: Daily | Tagged: Blarney castle, blarney stone, Ireland, travel | 3 Comments »

Ireland: Days 1-2

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Kelly

Holy moly, the past 12 days have been absolutely insane! Amazing, but insane. I’m back in the office today for the first time since April 9, and I’m not really feeling it. I’ve been trying to think about the best way to go about recapping Ireland and my mom’s wedding and I think the best way is just a day or two at a time. There are sooooooooo many pictures, and we saw so much. Sorry if you find multiple recap posts about one vacation annoying. I just really want to do it justice so when I’m old and senile I can remember it.

Since my sister and I were flying out of Newark, NJ on Thursday evening, I made my way up to PA on Wednesday afternoon and had my mom drop me off at her apartment in Philly. Having a late flight is weird, and we kind of just sat around on Thursday waiting until it was time to go. We ended up getting to the airport like 4 hours early, so we had plenty of time to relax (drink) and hopefully make ourselves sleepy for our red-eye flight to Dublin. Unfortunately, neither my sister nor I could sleep and when we landed in Dublin at 7 am were not as well rested as we were hoping for.

Our room wasn’t ready yet when we got to our hotel, so we checked our luggage with the concierge and decided to try to make the most of our first day in Ireland. Sleep deprived or not.

In St. Stephen’s Green

bridge in Dublin constructed to look like the Harp

We made it to the Guinness factory and had some beers in the Gravity Bar at the top

After the Guinness factory tour, we rode around on an open air bus seeing some more of Dublin, before Col and I both ended up passing out. On the bus. It was then we decided we needed an early dinner and bedtime to get our sleep back on track. 17 hours later, we woke up at 11:30 am ready and raring to go for day two of exploring Dublin.

Finally look awake

Christ Church Cathedral

Irish Famine statues

we went to dinner and a show here. They had live Irish music and Irish Stepdancing

I personally loved the cup holders on their mic stands

Col and I at dinner

We spent two nights in Dublin, and then started our journey to the southern part of the country, but more tomorrow!

Filed under: Daily | Tagged: dublin, Ireland, travel | 3 Comments »

Half the Time you were Together?

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Kelly

Hey, remember that time I was supposed to move to Wisconsin like 4 months ago? Well I didn’t (clearly) but it seems their weather has moved here for me. I can’t remember the last time I was still wearing my winter coat and scarves in April, and I haven’t needed a pair of flip-flops once yet this year. This just will not do. Apparently, on average, March was colder than December. Fun fact of the day.

Speaking of Wisconsin, I was out with one of my guy friends recently and he was asking me how I wasn’t over what happened yet. He didn’t understand how almost one year later I could still be so upset by what happened. I tried to explain to him, that for the most part I am over it. There’s no more crying in bed day after day, I’m not still holding out hope that it’s all just a bad dream, I don’t want to just lay in a bathtub with a jug of wine listening to Phil Collins. Well ok, I do, but just for fun. Not because I’m so deeply depressed that anything else seems like too much work. Note to self, next place I live must have a bathtub.

I told him, in a traditional sense I am over the break-up. Does that mean I didn’t nearly vomit and simultaneously almost crash my car when his phone number popped up in a text 3 weeks ago? No, and in fact I don’t think I stopped shaking for a good hour after the two text exchange, but isn’t that normal? The thought of him dating someone else (which I’m almost positive he is) makes me nauseous and angry enough to punch a wall, but that has more to do with how he’d always preach that I’d have a new boyfriend in two weeks but he has no interest in dating anyone but me. (Side note, I haven’t had anything remotely close to a boyfriend since him, which is the longest time I’ve been single in the history of my dating life.)

I explained that mostly the issue I’m still dealing with is, that when someone knows all your deepest insecurities about yourself, and then says them out loud to you, just to be mean, it takes a long time to bounce back. Those are the moments I still relive when I think about our break-up. The shock and disbelief at some of the words coming out of the mouth of the person I cared for most in the world. That’s what’s burned in my brain, and what I try to forget every day. However, the hurt of having someone you trusted most with all your fears and insecurities then using them against you to knock you down is indescribable. That’s what I’m not over.

Even now, just writing this post, my heart hurts thinking about it. There’s only so many times my friends can tell me that what was said wasn’t true, that I can tell myself it’s not true, but that one voice is still the loudest in my head. I don’t think there’s any formula to dictate when I should fully be over this and moved on, despite an episode of Sex and the City telling me there is, and if it takes me longer than other people think it should too bad for them. It takes a long time to build back up from the lowest of lows, and when I get there, I get there.

Filed under: break up, Daily | Tagged: break up, dating, hearbreak, opinion, relationships | 6 Comments »

It Goes on and on My Friends…

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Kelly

Winter, that is. I just looked back through my archives and it was in the 80s on this day last March. Today… this:

spring… is that you?

This tree is confused

It’s still snowing, and accumulating, which makes this the most snow we’ve had in the DC/metro area since January 2011. I’m at work because, well I’m not sure why, I guess they neglected to look outside today or something. Anywho, before the snow moved in I actually had a lovely weekend enjoying the weather outside during which I drank waaaay too much and needed to spend all of yesterday in bed.

A few months ago, when we thought it would be awesome and warm by the end of March, a group of my friends and I all bought tickets for the inaugural DC Beerfest at Nats Park. It wasn’t nearly as warm as we expected, but it was in the 50s and sunny, so as long as you stood in the sunshine it was fabulous.

candid

There were A LOT of different beers to try, and I did sample a good many of them. My least favorite? The one that tasted like a sour apple jolly rancher by Shock Top. Sadly that was my last beer of the day and I hated it.

Buddies

It was crowded, like super crowded, but I did manage to spot a few other friendly faces in the crowd, like Chase and my gurl Kacy. After they kicked us out of the stadium at 4 pm, I made the less than brilliant choice to head out with Kacy and her fiance to continue my all day bender. We went to Matchbox for food (my first trip!) then Bar Pilar, and finally Lost Society where after some dancing and too many vodka and sodas we finally went home.

vodka soda… damn you!

I also lost many layers of my outfit as the night went on… remarkably I made it home with all of them. I ended up sleeping at Kacy and Tom’s and then they were kind enough to drive me home the next day, despite the threat of my barfing all over Tom’s car. It was completely unnecessary but so fun at the same time, well until I woke up in the morning.

So here we are at Monday, and 17 days away from my vacation to Ireland with my sis. I can’t believe it’s a little over two weeks to go! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. How was your weekend, were you as dumb as me?

Filed under: Daily, Weekend Wrap- Ups | Tagged: beerfest, drinking, march, snow, spring | 4 Comments »

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