Ode to a Flip Flop

Stratford Upon Avon / Oxford / London
Stonehenge & Bath
Belfast & Giants' Causeway
Galway & Cliffs of Moher

On Thursday, we flew to Ireland. I was in fine form, being that we left at 4:30am with no sleep. On top of that, I got to Belfast airport and discovered one of my flip flops had fallen out of my bag. My mommy bought these flip flops (blue with a darker blue border, Old Navy) when i went to college as my shower sandals. And now one is lost. Forever. I was not pleased. We got to Belfast, it was freezing, windy and rainy. So we started walking around and walked up to the Titanic docks where the Titanic was built, finished, launched etc. It was a long walk and it was cold, but I thought it was totally worth it. Sean. Not so much -- he was not pleased. We stopped for coffee, met the barista who was cool and bused back. Walked around somemore, took a nap, went to dinner with Melissa -- Sean's cousin who he hadn't spoken to in 15 years. It was awesome! Went for some beef stew -- just like mom's!! And then to a former IRA pub, which was amazing. Melissa also told us our street is one of the most militant streets in Belfast. Awesome. What was really interesting about Belfast is that it seems like it's trying to be cosmopolitan . . . it has a London Eye, a Big Ben, a Reichstag dome, but it fails. Cool though: it did have cadbury cream egg mcFlurrys.
Friday we got up super early and headed to the Giant's Causeway way up on the North Coast. The Causeway was supposedly formed when the famous Irish Giant wanted to fight the Scottish giant, but realized the Scottish one was too big so his wife hid him as a baby and told the Scottish one that the dad must be 100xs bigger. So then they tore up the causeway. I don't know, the story didn't make sense to me either. In any case, it is these beautiful rocks that are in columns with sides of 5-8. Really really beautiful with cliffs and oceans. Then we went back to Belfast and hopped our bus to Galway, which took forever. Finally we arrived, got to the hotel and I got to see EMILY TODD!! WOOHOO!
Saturday, we basically just walked around Galway. Galway is amazing. It is the perfect town. Pretty much no chain stores, all these local family owned pubs where real Irish actually hang out. It is right on the Atlantic, overlooking the mountains and islands of other Irish counties. We just had a great day catching up, walking around in the sun light, sitting by the ocean, listening to Irish music . . . really wonderful.
Sunday, Easter, I got up really early and went to mass in the Cathedral. It was really really nice and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was a little sad to be alone and it was my first Easter without an Easter brunch, but I made do by eating a nice breakfast, coffee and reading Portrait of a Lady while I waited for the others to wake up. Then, we got on a tour bus for the Cliffs of Moher. If you look at no other pictures . . . PLEASE look at these ones. It is just absolutely beautiful there. I could have stayed there for a really really long time. Anyways. We ate dinner in Galway at this cute little french place where I had an amazing salad and now we are chilling out watching the Island. Off to the Dingle Peninsula tomorrow!