Chilled to the bones

For those of you who have been monitoring me you'll realise that I'm back a day early from my trip to the south of Ireland. (Also - link for my London photos - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200702&id=504857518&l=e454c27141 ).

Let's just say that this trip was characterised by extremes.

My trip got off to a spectacularly negative start when I woke up at 6:20am (to meet people at 7:30am to catch the train) and stepped out of my room to make breakfast. Unbeknownst to me, I had not actually deactivated the lock on my bedroom door the previous night (or if I did it had reset itself) and I didn't take my keycard with me. I was consequently locked out of my bedroom in my pajamas. I had to wake my roommate up and we used her phone to call security and get them to call the RA to come open for me. Three phone calls and an hour later the RA showed up and I got back into my room at 7:30 exact. I took what I then thought was the fastest shower ever (later to be shattered by an even faster shower) and made it out of my room by 7:39am.

We caught the train and connected in Mallow - which should ring a bell to those of you who benefited from the ABRSM exams and any ND students. Yup the town that inspired Mallow Fling aka Rakes of Mallow aka "that song we dance the jig to."

We got to Tralee and decided there really wasn't much to do there so we rather spontaneously took the next bus to Dingle and found ourselves a hostel. Dingle was AWESOME and we met some great characters in the pubs.
Here's a brief summary of the highlights of Dingle:
1. The Scenery!2. Fungie! - (pron. FOON - ghee, with a hard "g"). Really more of a running joke this weekend. Fungie is the dolphin that took up residence in Dingle bay about 20 years ago. We kept hoping to see him and our response to just about everything was to yell excitedly "FUNGIEEE!!!!!!" lol. Actually...we did see him from a distance on the bus as we were leaving.3. The Pubs - O'Flahertys was AMAZING! It was really early so there was hardly anyone there and the bartender sang and played about 3 instruments over the course of the night and one middle-aged guy we were just chatting with turned out to be a former champion Irish dancer so he danced right there in the pub. It was spectacular in a thousand different ways and I was so happy sitting there with my Bulmers next to the warm fire.
Dick Macks was another fun pub we went to - Where is Dick Macks? Opposite the Church. Where is the Church? Opposite Dick Macks!

Anyway, as briefly as possible I will explain the rest of the trip.

The heaters in the hostel turned off at some point and we woke up freezing cold. THEN I had to take a shower in water that was cold I'm amazed it hadn't turned to ice. That was the fastest shower in history! I swear it was cold my skin actually burned when I stepped out.
After that there was no fixing it. No matter what we did we felt freezing cold for the rest of the day. This was not helped by the fact that I'm sick.
We eventually took the bus back to Tralee and checked the train schedule for the next morning. Then we all simultaneously decided "screw it, I'm going back to Dublin right now."

Then I finally got here and well...one 43 degree Celsius shower, two cups of tea and three layers of clothing later I'm still freezing to death.

*sigh* I miss everyone and I am freaking cold.