Monday, June 13, 2011

Wrestling touches down in Ireland

Greetings to all in the USA! I am currently blogging to you from the hostel we are staying at in Derry. Day 1 got off to a fast start. We arrived in Dublin shortly after 10:00 a.m. local time after a smooth flight over. After going through the general airport procedures we all got on board a bus ironically nicknamed "The Paddy Wagon." From there, our driver Kevin drove us up to Northern Ireland in a long three-hour drive. Naturally, most of us were pretty jet-lagged and slept the majority of the way up.

Our first stop in Northern Ireland was at Giant's Causeway, where we spent time and ate lunch. At Giant's Causeway we were able to see first-hand the truly amazing landscape of Northern Ireland. The site is composed of 40,000 regular-shaped basalt columns packed closely together as if to form a "stepping stone" pathway stretching out to the sea. Along with that, they are right next to a very rocky area of cliffs and valleys which made for extraordinary imagery which the majority of us were able to catch on camera. It was also there where we ate our lunch/dinner. I personally enjoyed a delicious traditional Irish stew which featured beef, potatoes and carrots. Another popular dish that was eaten by Nick Herrick and Kyle D'Urso who were both at my table was the steak with Guinness pie dish, which received all positive reviews. After that, we started to venture towards Derry to our hostel.

On the way we stopped at the Dunluce Castle in Ballycastle which is a historic castle that was built in the 1500s. From there we finally traveled to our hostel in Derry. There we assembled into our rooms, and due to a room trading misconduct we were forced to have a 9:00 p.m. curfew. I am currently blogging at 9:30 and it is still bright out so we're all pretty disappointed in our actions and don't plan on letting anything like this happen again. While in Derry, we had about two hours to go around and check out the local scene. We traveled to a few pubs and I'll tell you right now, a Guinness draft beer in Ireland is the most delicious beer I have ever consumed in my life. Tomorrow we have to wake up early to practice with a team from Northern Ireland, before heading to the Bush Mills factory for a tour and hopefully some samplings. I'll keep you all updated with the events of tomorrow as well as the rest of the trip.

Over and out,

Chris O'Shea

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