Day three (it feels like longer)

August 16
Duration of day: 8:00 AM Ireland time – 10:20 PM Ireland time

Written on the bus to the Ferry/Hotel/in hotel Room

I changed our wakeup call to 7:30, but it still rang at 8, which was really annoying. Emily rolled over again, so I got up. All my stuff was packed except morning hygiene things. After that, I went downstairs to see if the internet was back yet… it wasn’t, which was irritating. I really hope it’s working at the Malton. It already annoys me that I’ll have to post 3 days on one day.

Breakfast was the same, uninteresting. We’re going on a ferry across the Shannon River today, and apparently we have a lot of free time, which is good. It’s funny how, when you have a busy day there’s more to write about, but less time in which is write it, and on a mellow day there’s lots of time to write but little to write about. Also, I managed to sleep a little but on the way to the ferry, which was nice.

The ferry was nice; it’s been a while since I’ve been on a boat. Apparently there were dolphins, but I didn’t get to see them. I got some “apple soda” at the little shop, but it turned out to be fermented apple soda. Yuck. The woman repeatedly told me that there was no alcohol in it, but it tasted like alcohol. I found someone else who wanted it though, thankfully.

Oh yeah, and I sat next to Chris on the bus and we had a lot of really good conversation. It was nice.

We went to the Muckross House and Gardens from the ferry. The gardens were gorgeous, and I took a lot of pictures. We had lunch at the cafeteria nearby, which was pretty good – it was the first time since we got here that I’ve been able to choose what I want to eat. We also toured the house, which was intense. It was apparently given to the state when the bride of a pair of recent newlyweds died. The house (along with 11,000 acres of land) had apparently been their wedding gift. I keep calling it a house, but really, it was a mansion. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, though.

The hotel is ridiculously nice. Really, I think it’s the nicest hotel I’ve been to. I should take some pictures. It’s just awesome. Emily and I have a room on the first floor, which is also pretty dope. I’m beginning to talk like Gordon.

Dinner was pretty good; I sat with Emily, Freddy and Gordon. Dessert, though, was AMAZING. Freddy and I got two desserts to share – one was crème brûlée. It was incredible.

After that, I went downtown. Pretty much everything was closed, though. I bought some freakishly large (and awesome) notebooks for school, as well as some colored fine-tip pens and cranberry-black currant juice. Then I went to the grocery store and for a 2 liter bottle of water for 99 euro cents and also some “Happy Hippo” biscuits. Hardcore. That’s all I can say.

Don’t really think anything else is gonna happen tonight, so I’m just gonna go ahead and post. It anything of interest happens, it’ll be on tomorrow’s post.

That is, with the exception of Emily coming to give me her iPod to charge and tell me that the number one weapon in the top ten kung-fu weapons on discovery channel is the flying guillotine.