Welp.
Currently I am in a youth hostel in Dublin, Ireland listening to the saccharine lyrics of Madonna ooze out of creaky speakers while watching the parade of weary travelers crowd by. It's fun to be here. :)

The ride over was far from eventful. Everything worked our wonderfully. Planes were on time, baggage was the first off the belt, and I just so happen to have the exact right amount of change for the 45 minute bus ride to the city. Dandy. :) By far my favorite part of the ride was the people watching in Chicago airport. Once you check in through the international portion of security...things get ultimately juicy. I cannot express how gleeful I was sitting in the food court humbled by the total insanity of cultural twisting taking place around high school-like cafeteria tables. The fact everyone is subject to the same degree of displacement and disorientation is refreshing, husked away from their "I am this" and "I am thats." Really people are just humans in different costumes. I can think of very few things in this world that could keep me in a constant state of awe for 7 hours straight.

Ireland kicks tushy. Seriously! They have their stuff figured out. I feel like the streets are flocked by little jolly men with a general rosy check-ness. It is hilarious. I wandered around (with about 50 minutes of sleep mind you) for about 2 hours trying to figure out how to ship my large bag to Sussex...and despite the total inhospitality of the Irish postal system, the people working at the depots were incredible. I even had a little old lady walk me part of the way to a place I needed to go. But despite that, I am yet to ship my bags. Haha. They charged 40 Euros for 5 kilos, with a 1 Euro charge for every extra kilo...and in my incompetent, sleep lacking head, I forgot that kilos were different (duh) than pounds and thought that they wanted me to pay about $300 to mail two 20 kilo packages.

...yeah. Luckily I remembered and now have a box I stole from a guy loading a truck and everything in line to mail them. :) Hahaha.

Today I wandered aimlessly around the city, enjoyed the freshest Guinness in the world form the 7 story Gravity Bar with the best view of Dublin possible, went to a gypsy jazz concert, ate crappy chicken galore (so much for vegetarianism), sat at a coffee shop along side the river musing/getting attacked by a crazy homeless guy named Wally who just wanted to spell "antidisestablishmentarianism" (which apparently I cannot do), and toured the Dublin palace. Its been quite an eventful day...and I am REALLY READY TO SLEEP!

Tomorrow I plan on taking a train out to Howth, which is a rural, quirky fishing town on the other side of the island in hopes of seeing some of the infamous cliffs and sea spray. I am unbelievably excited. Ever since a friend intrigued me by suggesting walking across the country, with the desire to see the cliffs, I've been lusting over going.

oh...and p.s. MY NAME IS EVERYWHERE! Haha. It is fabulous. Kelly this and Kelly that. Ireland knows where its at. :)