Hello everybody!

I just wanted to write a quick journal to let everyone know that we made it safely to Shannon, Ireland. We arrived at 9:30 AM and were all very exhausted from the long layovers in JFK, and overnight flight into Shannon. After arriving, we were greeted by a gentleman with an EMU sign. He had us rolling in style with a charter bus, however, the bus loaded from the left side. This was so strange to get used to. I wondered if this was different, then what else would be different as well! Oh, how could I forget? Our driver apparently had a few brews with his breakfast because we could smell it on him. So that made our first bus ride interesting. It all ended fine, and we arrived at our first hostel. We stayed at a hostel called Rowan. This place was voted best in Ireland in 2009, which made it very soothing knowing we had “the best.” These hostels were very interesting…The guys room specifically had 10 beds, which was obviously good for us because we had only 9 guys. So, naturally we bought out the 10th bed and had the room to ourselves for 2 nights.

To wrap our first 2 nights of stay in Ennis, Ireland, in a nut shell, the city reminded me of a small New York City, but, with a twist. All of the shops lined up next door to each other and every other appeared to be a pub. This was hilarious. But, what was better is that these shops/restaurants all closed at roughly 5-6pm. Why? Because this is when everyone goes home and rests up after a long day at work. Then…you guessed it, everyone heads to the pubs. Oh geesh! This country is clearly based around Guinness. We saw numerous empty Guinness kegs just hanging out on the sides of these buildings. Not to mention, every sign in town had something to do with Guinness. While in Ennis we were able to go to a place called Bunratty Castle. This was an incredible place. We observed the castle up and down and were all amazed with the structure and how they could possibly do this type of thing back in the day. We then later went back to Bunratty castle for a dinner/show type thing. They served us a four course meal that consisted of a thick soup that reminded us of gravy, ribs as the second course, and then for the main dish we had chicken and veggies! The final dish was a fruit filled hard yogurt type thing. It is so hard to explain, but it was delicious. The show part consisted of these people being dressed in the types of clothing that they wore in those days, followed by plenty of singing and cheering. It was such a great experience.

Lots has happened already within the first few days. Lots of pictures, plenty of meals, and TONS of walking. We’ll all update soon. I hope this finds you well as you all read through our travels during this six week stay all over Ireland.

-Chris Miller