We’re done traveling now so you won’t see any more pictures from exotic locales or hear any more about how warm it is in Italy.  This is as disappointing for us as it is for you (probably more so for us).  Classes are finished and this week is set aside for nothing but studying.  We haven’t found this to be the University’s most effective decision since most people have gone home to party and the few that remain prefer belligerence over studiousness.

Yet here we are, in Kilmurry Village, cooking in what can only be described as filth.  It wasn’t so bad last week because of the periodic cleanliness check that all buildings must undergo.  Katherine and I have found it rather silly that the adults must come check on our cleanliness, but given the teenagers we live with it’s been a blessing in disguise.  The kitchen magically becomes clean the night before these checks with no moldy bread lying around, no three-week-old stains on the plates, and no spilled milk on the table/floor/counter.  And then the next day comes.

It usually starts with breakfast.  Someone puts milk and cereal in a bowl, eats a bit, and leaves it there for a few days.  At lunchtime someone else may fry sausage on the stove and leave the pan there until the next day.  Then dinnertime rolls around and chaos breaks loose.  After a night of noodles, sauce, and TV-watching, someone apparently could not muster the strength to a) finish their food or b) throw their old sauce away or c) clean the pot they used.  The result of all this is below.

• Walk to the campus bus stop
• Take the bus to the Limerick bus station
• Take a different bus to Shannon Airport (20 miles away)
• Fly to Gatwick Airport (30 miles outside London)
• Take the Gatwick Express train to London
• Take the London Underground to another stop
• Walk to the hostel a few blocks away

Our schedule was such that Katherine needed to skip her last class Monday (missing her “How to Start a Business in Ireland” class is not a big deal) and head over to the campus bus stop where I’d be waiting with the bags. This shouldn’t have been a problem, but there is no such thing as a schedule in Ireland.

I was at the bus stop at 4:15 and I watched the 4:15 bus go by. At 4:30 two buses pulled up and both left at the same time. When Katherine arrived at 4:35 I figured we could catch the 4:45 bus. Of course not! The two buses at 4:30 meant the next one wouldn’t come until at least 5:00. By the time 5:10 rolled around I was getting a bit perturbed with all things Irish. A bus did eventually come at 5:15 but we had missed our airport bus by the time we got to Limerick station. State-run monopolies are not efficient.

We did eventually get to the airport on time, and on the plane on time, and on the Gatwick Express on time, and to the hostel before 11. Then we went to sleep and prepared for the sights on Tuesday.

Here are some pictures of Trafalgar Square because I didn’t know where else to put them.

We briefly discussed walking all the way there but discarded that idea quickly.  Despite the €1.45 one-way fare we took the bus downtown, armed with a map and a camera.  We headed toward King John’s Castle, the imposing structure along the river Shannon, visible from most areas downtown.  On the way there we saw, and subsequently explored the courthouse.  There wasn’t much to see, crime didn’t seem to be a big problem on Friday afternoon.  We saw a brochure advertising the class field trips that could be organized given advance warning.  One of the stipulations was that everyone be in school uniform.  We wouldn’t have fit in.  As we were leaving, Katherine – with her eagle-like eyes – spotted an enormous spider on the wall.  We won’t be returning to the courthouse.

The castle wasn’t too much farther and when we got right next to it I was rather unimpressed.  It wasn’t nearly as big as I expected and large parts of it were under construction.  Katherine snapped a picture and I pulled out the map.  We were looking at St. Mary’s Cathedral, not the castle.  The castle was just down Nicholas St.  This Nicholas Street was not like other Nicholas Streets.  This Nicholas Street was named after Ol’ St. Nick (Santa Clause).  It includes several pubs, like every other street in Ireland, but otherwise seemed like a good place to park reindeer for a few hours.

Around the next corner we finally saw the castle.  You’ll see pictures below of us standing at one of the entrances, Katherine (of course) trying to outdo me.  We took a quick look and decided that whatever information was actually inside the castle wasn’t worth €6.65 each.  I can get 3 ties for that amount at Penney’s.  There are some more pictures of the castle from across the river, where we found…

The Treaty Stone!  Legend has it that the Treaty of Limerick was signed on this very stone in October of 1691.  It had to do with the English respecting Catholicism and the Irish making some other concessions.  As it turned out, neither side kept their end of the deal and the treaty never amounted to much.

After some more walking we ended up alongside the river watching someone throw old bread out to the multitudes of swans and seagulls.  Below you’ll see pictures of a swimming swan that had his/her head and neck tucked in so as to avoid looking like he/she had a head or neck.  That’s my interpretation, at least.  The crows eventually were made aware of the bread and the entire situation devolved into one giant bird argument.

We saw a hay truck, we looked through Penney’s (which has ridiculously cheap clothes), and got back on the bus.  That’s when the real fun began.  As we were boarding the bus we heard a sound like this.  We found seats on the extremely full bus and were, unfortunately, only a few feet from the drunk/crazy guy carrying a brown bottle and periodically singing something like this.

Of course it was rush hour and Limerick’s two-lane streets simply cannot handle the amount of traffic.  The bus was hardly moving and the crazy guy was only getting louder and smelling worse.  At the next stop several people got off and the crazy guy moved to the very back row.  He must have felt quite comfortable back there because his outbursts turned into this.

Long story short, we got off early and walked back to campus.  Then we found a new Mystery Picture – check that page next and be sure to leave your guess.

This is the scene at UL every night.  The droves of people are the students because the drinking age is 18 and the federal government has largely given up on keeping alcohol out of minors’ hands, even as they celebrate the completion of middle school (see today’s Irish Times).  The bars in UL’s case are on campus, heavily promoted, and always open – even on Sunday.  Not even the library is open on Sunday.  The concerts take place near the students’ union; there is someone playing something almost every night, and it’s always loud.  Tonight the student body president introduced The Delorentos by screaming about fees and handing condoms out to the crowd (perhaps Mrs. Palin could learn a thing or two).  Lastly, classes are of no importance whatsoever to a large portion of the UL students because the vast majority, if not all, of their grade is determined by one end-of-semester test.  No academic progress needs to be made until week 9 (since students are quite good at memorizing and regurgitating junk) and classes aren’t widely attended until after Week 1.

There is a distinct divide between those parading around in the streets, and those in their rooms wishing there was something else to do.  Katherine and I are most certainly in the latter group and plan on getting as far away from Limerick as we can on the weekends.

I arrived half an hour later, met the checked baggage weight limit, and wasn’t asked to weigh my carry-on. We said our goodbyes and headed through security. But wait, we needed some ice cream to calm the nerves first. Then we headed through security and waited at our gate for 90 minutes.

We got on the plane, our seats were in the second row of the non-fancy section (we could have upgraded for $1,039 each way). Every seat had a little TV in front where we could watch TV episodes of Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy, The Sopranos, Boston Legal, and others; movies – most of which we had never heard of; play games including sudoku, battleship, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire; and see our trip progress via GPS. Pictures are included below.

Dinner included our choice of chicken and rice or beef and potatoes. Katherine chose the chicken and I chose the beef. Pictures are included but Katherine’s looks like vomit. It tasted better than it looks. She ate my veggies and I ate her cheesecake.

Nighttime came quickly since we were traveling east. After several hours of movies, sudoku, music videos, and random TV shows, we were given breakfast. It consisted of cold ham and cold cheese on a cold croissant. It was less than tasty.

The sun rose (after only a few hours of nighttime) and we eventually saw the shores of Ireland and its extensive greenery. Irish farmers don’t divide their plots with fences – they use trees – and their plots are of every possible shape but square.

We landed in Dublin, sat there for an hour, and made our way back to Limerick. It should be noted that I asked Katherine what she thought of flying several times while we were in the air and her response each time was “this isn’t bad, at all.”

Getting through customs took some time. It took a lot of time, in fact, because all the students at UL and whatever school is in Galway had to wait until everyone else was processed. There are a lot of seats on an Airbus 330 so we waited for a long time. Once half the students were processed another plane arrived and the second half (of which we were a part) waited an even longer time. We finally grabbed our bags and followed the Limerick guides to the bus.

–Mark