Day 1

I arrived in Ireland at 5:33 this morning (midnight New York time) after a sleepless five-hour flight. They gave us "breakfast" about two hours after feeding us dinner, and it felt like some kind of sick joke. The morning was cold and extremely foggy, and we got on a bus at the airport and set off for what was to be a long, sleep-deprived day.

Fun fact: Ireland is very green. 

There is also lots of farmland. We drove through Cork, Kerry, Killarney, and a few other places (the counties are tiny) today, and we saw a lot of cows and sheep.

Also some castles.

Our major stop today was a location I was very excited about- the Cliffs of Moher. They are a dramatic line of cliffs that drop 7,000 feet straight down to the ocean. I was very excited about them because I'd heard how spectacular they are, and also because they are mentioned in one of my favorite books. In the book, the protagonist had to spit over the Cliffs of Moher, and I instantly saw why that was such a challenge. In order to spit over the cliffs, you either have to be an expert long-distance loogie shooter, or be willing to get right up close to the edge. I was neither. So there was no spitting, but I still took a lot of pictures.
It was foggy and rainy when we first arrived, but fortunately the sun came out a little bit later, so we got to see them in their mostly-full glory.
Also, apparently there are puffins who live on the cliffs, but I didn't see any.

Then we did some more driving through the countryside and past some tiny villages, and then we took a ferry across a river. I don't remember what river. I was very tired.

Then we got to our hotel in Killarney, which is very nice and is arranged a little like an Escher drawing.

We had choir rehearsal, and now I am going to sleep.