I was awoken on Sunday by the beautiful smell of scones. Keith had been raving about his mothers scones for weeks and since I had never had a scone before, I was quite excited. Keith's raving was justified as the scones were utterly delectable.
Sunday and Monday were slow days. Keith showed me around Limerick, which, I'm sorry to say, I didn't think much of, but found it, however, intriguing. It is a small city of about 70,000 (smaller than Konstanz), but despite it's size, has a big city attitude. There is not much more I can say about the place. I'm glad I've seen it, but wouldn't go out of my way to see it again.
On Tuesday Keith's father took us on a road trip through southern Ireland. This was something I very much looked forward to because I had been wanting to see so more of the Irish landscape. At times Ireland seemed very familiar to me. The landscape was not at all different to something I'd see in New Jersey or Pennsylvania. There were other times, however, when I knew that what I was seeing was something special and unique to Ireland. Describing the sights simply wouldn't do it justice and like they always say, a picture says a thousand words.
On the way back home, Keith’s father’s car began to make a weird sound. It was an annoying, high pitched, ring and it overpowered all conversation and thought for the three hour ride home. What a nice little surprise that was.
Wednesday and Thursday saw the height of my sickness incapacitate me. I stayed in Keith's room, reading, watching Back to the Future, and trying to get some sleep. It was a dismal little two days and that's all I'll say of them.
Friday I was feeling better, but wasn't 100%. It was freezing outside, which is why I couldn't understand why Keith's brother Damien decided to keep his car window open as we drove to the football match. After a while of freezing my tush off and thinking of the crazy Irish Travelers, my recent illness, and Damien's driving itself I proclaimed, “Damien, if you don’t put your window up, I’m going to have to list freezing to death under possible things that might kill me on this trip.” He put his window up with a smile.
The football match was fun enough. Sadly Limerick lost, but they put on a good fight and I can now say I’ve seen a football match in Germany, England, and Ireland!
St. Patrick’s Day, for me, was relatively quiet. Keith’s friends were scattered about and no one seemed to want to go out so Keith and I spent the night at his house, watching a movie and eating grilled cheese. I’m not complaining, the grilled cheese really hit the spot. Keith’s little nephews and niece were staying over as well. They were cute little buggers, but I don’t think Keith’s two year old niece, Quiva, liked me much. She kept looking at me and yelling, “It’s not funny!” I still have no idea what she was talking about, but I bet it was hilarious. On the day we, after telling me a billion times that I wasn’t invited to her party, Quiva kept repeating, “Your not going back to Germany!“, which I found slightly disconcerting because I didn’t know what she had planed for me. I made sure she was kept away form sharp objects and kept my distance from her till I left.
Keith’s father drove us back to Dublin. Incommodious as it might have been, sitting with two other boys in the back seat of a car for three hours, it was cheaper than taking the bus. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice Dublin was. I didn’t see much of it, to be fair, but the section in which we stayed was very artistic and cool.
Well that would be the end of my trip to Ireland. I didn’t have a bad time, but my experience was slightly marred by my illness and that, coupled with the weather conditions, have unfortunately bumped it down to the least favorite country I’ve visited thus far. What’s the next stop on my whirlwind adventure...? Who knows.
the countryside looks so beautiful and is something id love to see. the trip in general might have sucked and thats no fun, but atleast now you can see you've been to ireland, you know?
yes. i'm not complaining. i just wrote to express what i truly thought of the place. you don't have to love everyplace you visit. that's the only point i was trying to make.
Whoa whoa...tuck the claws back in, Judd! People are going to be too scared to comment in the future for fear of the Wrath of Judd.
O man.... I've been laughing for a good 10 minutes about keith's cousin. That was hilarious!! Was I the only one laughing about that. Well alright...I was greatly amused by it. In fact, think I'm going to go back and read it again...
haha...oh yeah...I chuckled at that too! I think it's strange she kept saying "it's not funny" for no reason, but perhaps this is Irish slang for something...maybe you should consult Keith. Judd, did you end up being there for her party? That would have really ticked her off....haha...you should have stuck around until the day of the party just to see her reaction!
Oh boy, I'll bet if you weren't sick, and it was Spring, it would have been a whole different Ireland for you. Any way, the best part for me too was Keith's little niece. She probably had a big crush on you, that's our way of expressing our feeling for boys we really like. If you don't believe me, ask Alex, Davon, and, well, Dad.
Mom,
What's with the boy head eating the girl head at the bottom of your comment? It's kinda creeping me out that you chose that to go with your message.
Ha, ha, ha. When I went to get the smiley face to put at the end, it just showed a boy and girl head kissing, so I added that, to my dismay, in the reply the boy head sucked in the girl head, but I didn't know how to get rid of it because I just learned how to use the smiley face thing. Ha, ha, ha
