Dublin Wknd Trip

So this is a little bit late, but I forgot to post about my trip to Dublin a couple weekends ago. We decided to head up the weekend before St. Patrick's Day because one of my friends from Suffolk University was going to be in the city for a day and it seemed like the perfect chance to meet up. My two roommates & I headed up Thursday night and we stayed there until Monday morning. A couple of our friends from UCC also met us up there for a night or so.

It has been one of the funnest (is that a word?) weekends here in Ireland so far! I had the greatest time with all my friends. We stayed at a hostel just off the main street, so walking around the city wasn't bad. Going to Dublin definitely made me appreciate Cork a lot more, however. I was excited when we first got off the bus in Dublin cause it instantly reminded me of Boston (on a smaller scale of course), but then throughout the next couple days I started to notice how grimy and sketchy Dublin could be. There were a lot of homeless and drunk people constantly. & because the city is relatively small, you have HUGE amounts of people walking around everywhere -- it got a little claustrophobic at times. What didn't help was that there was a 6 Nations Rugby Game on that weekend and it was between Scotland and Ireland, so loads more people were there! It was cool at the same time though cause all the Scotland male fans wore kilts the whole weekend. It was the funniest thing! i love watching the rugby games now though, everyone gets so into it. it makes me miss football!

Got to hit all the major sightseeing spots including: Trinity College (the Harvard of Ireland), Guinness Factory, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The General Post Office (HQ for 1916 rebellion), Temple Bar (famous nightlife strip), Dublin Castle, & much more! Because the city is such a major tourist destination they put traditional customs on a bigger scale than Cork. There was traditional Irish music and dance at every pub every night in Dublin. That was one thing I really liked about Dublin. I need to learn some of the traditional Irish songs...it's easy to pretend like you know the words when you're in a pub and everyone else is chanting them cause the melody/tune/whatever is pretty standard in all, but you can only pull it off for so long. plus, the song's are cool and i wouldn't mind bringing it back to the States. haha ;)

Our hostel included free Irish breakfast every morning so that was a major plus! No blood sausages for me though. haha We actually met a couple guys from Switzerland who were staying in the same room as our other friends one night, so we got to hang out with them. That's what's nice about hostels too -- the fact that you not only get a taste of the country culture, but get to meet people from all across the world.

Well enough of my blabbing -- here are some pictures!!

Dublin Castle -- showing architecture thru the ages
(from right to left: 18th cent. church, 16th cent. tower, 19th cent. state apts, and 21st cent. color blocks) haha

Christ Church Cathedral

Thee Temple Bar on the strip known as "Temple Bar" haha

Ha'Penny Bridge

in front of Trinity College

statue in St. Stephen's Green representing the potato famine. 

General Post Office, which was the headquarters for the Republic's rebellion in 1916.
you could still see the bullet holes in the building

some Scots fans wearing kilts around the city

Kelly & I in front of the Guinness factory. definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

traditional Irish lamb stew, yumm! 

preserved bog body at the National History Museum, ewwww! 

singing & dancing to traditional pub songs after Ireland's rugby victory! 

my Suffolk friend, Jovani, who came to visit! so nice to see a familiar face :) 

our Swiss friends, Kelly, me, & Jovani

A Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday was one of the days i've been looking forward to since i got accepted to study at UCC. It was St. Patrick's Day and I was in Ireland! How many people can say that? I get to check it off my bucket list now ;) Although, the funny thing is America celebrates this holiday on a much bigger scale than the Irish do. It's actually a religious holiday here and we even get this Monday off for it. A lot of locals were saying that until fairly recently everything would be shut down on St. Patrick's Day and there was no big celebration. It wasn't until their Irish-American cousins began to come back and introduced this idea of celebrating with big parades and all the green and what not.

My friends & I got all greened-up anyways and started off the long day going to the parade downtown. It was short and small but still fun nonetheless. They had all these food and craft booths up and down the streets, and you could hear local live music every where you walked. It was a pretty gorgeous day as well.  Only sprinkled for like 10 minutes the whole day. After the parade we hurried to a sports bar so we could watch the 6 Nations Rugby game. It was England vs. Ireland, so the place was packed! I had to stand on our table booth seats so i could see the screen. No one cared though, it was hilarious. Since being here i'm actually getting really into rugby. I gotta read up on all the rules and what not cause it's pretty confusing. Ireland lost :( but it was a fun time.

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS' DAY! 

downtown Cork after the parade

Patrick, Brita, & Me

Getting Ready for April Excursion

Just bought my ticket for the beginning of my Europe backpacking adventure this April. I have the whole month of April off, which is allotted to Irish students for actual study time to prepare for finals, but most international students spend it exploring the vastness of the great European countryside! ;) I plan on seeing as much as I can and having a great time along the way, although I don't see myself staying out the whole month. I'll probably be coming back to Ireland towards the end of April so I can get my last few relaxing days before finals taking in the Irish landscape some more.

TIME IS GOING BY WAY TOO FAST!

I feel like there's so much left to do and see, yet I don't know what that is. This month of March is the last of my lectures, then off to travel April, then finals in May, & then it's homeward bound! what!?

Anyways, I'm going to be traveling with my best bud since childhood, Parker, and his brother for the month. It's going to be so much fun with those two, plus it's nice not to have to worry about my safety in foreign cities as much having two strong boys standing next to me! :) Starting off in Zurich, Switzerland -- heading back to the homeland of the "Yegge's" to discover my roots. SO EXCITED ~*

Another Archaeology Adventure!

Today was spent over a bit of East Cork with my Archaeology class for our second, and last, field trip. We visited everything from wedge tombs to the Rock of Cashel. I'm glad I was able to see these sites with my class because I know otherwise I might not have gotten a chance to make it out to certain historical sties, not to mention the discounted group fee is nice! ;)

The weather was quite sunny for a good portion of the trip, but towards the end it decided it wanted to get storm-y -- que intense wind and fierce rainfall. I was nearly running out of the Rock of Cashel for the bus. Had any amazing time though and got some great pictures! Only downside was that the monument is undergoing restorations, so I couldn't get a better view of the entire church, etc.

The Rock of Cashel is a 12th century monument overlooking the south of Tipperary. It's one of the most beautiful sites I've seen here thus far. From all the archaeology knowledge I've been studying, I learned that it was once home to the kings of Munster and includes many romanesque artifacts like a round tower, high-crosses, a royal sarcophagus, and Cormac's Chapel (one of the earliest Romanesque churches in Ireland where wall murals have been discovered). It's amazing to see what humans accomplished before the invention of the technology we use today. I feel so lazy knowing what I depend on to get through the day, let alone trying to build such a beautiful fortress on top of a rock!

Lily & I having a little fun in the cemetery

just trying to move this rock...totally normal. 

largest wedge tomb in Ireland!

13th century Glanworth Castle

The Rock of Cashel from below

Courtney, Patrick, & Lily (pictured in red, black, and white) outside the church

ROUND TOWER! 

beautiful view from atop the Rock! 

detail on inside of chapel

some paintings that have just recently been discovered in the church. 

High-Cross (I love the artwork on these monuments!)

Around the Ring of Kerry

So this weekend I found myself off on another adventure! I had almost forgotten, but back during the first week of school my roommates & I decided to sign up for the Ring of Kerry Heritage trip put on by the school. It wasn't the cheapest trip, but for where we were staying and the food we were eating and the places we were seeing I'd say it was worth it. It's rather funny because I remember when we were signing up I thought that the weekend we picked to go seemed so far away, yet here it's already come and gone. Time is going by too fast!

Anywho, on Friday afternoon a big group of us (international students) loaded up a bus and set out on our way to Kerry. It was about a 3 hour drive from Cork and there were many windy roads, so I was so relieved when we finally reached our hotel in the little town of Cahersiveen. When I tell you that I found myself in rural Ireland, I mean extremely rural. Cahersiveen's nearest hospital is almost an hour away, as well as the cinema. This might have been one of the smallest towns I've ever been in. What I loved about it though was the huge sense of community it had -- granted it wouldn't be hard when the population is so low.

The Ring of Kerry is on the southwest coast of Ireland and has some of the most beautiful sights to see. It makes a literal ring through Killarney, Portmagee, Ballinskelligs, and Kells to name a few.

We stayed in a hotel the whole weekend which provided us with breakfast, lunch, and dinner during our whole stay. The food was amazing too -- they let you actually choose from like 3 options for every meal. The first night we arrived we headed straight to dinner and after we had a speaker from the community come in to talk to us about the small town and afterwards taught us some traditional Irish dances. It was quite funny! The whole time I just kept counting in my head "point, kick, 1 2 3 4". The moves were easy but putting it all together was pretty funny. It was really really fun though. I wish i had some pictures or video of it, but I was too busy trying to get the moves down to snap any pictures. 

On Saturday, we traveled around Kerry learning about Ireland's history by visiting a bog village and looking at some farm animals. Then we headed to Telegraph Field where the Trans-Atlantic Cable was first set up to connect the US to the rest of Europe -- making it possible for telegraphs to be transferred instantly versus taking weeks. There was such a beautiful view from the Field. We next moved on to the Fogher Cliffs to hear from a local farmer who explained how farming has changed in Ireland over the centuries. This visit included more farm animal sightings! The farmer had a lot of calfs -- some of which had just been born that morning. They had the biggest eyes and were probably really confused by everyone taking pictures of them. But boy, did they have quite a stench! We ended the night with a trivia quiz at a local pub where we had another speaker talk to us about the sport of Gaelic Football. Was really interesting! It's such a weird sport -- mixes everything from basketball, football, to soccer. 

My roommates & I on Telegraph Field

rainboots are a definite must here! 

Irish wolfhounds -- theses dogs are gignatic! They are slowly being introduced back into Ireland and are used for hunting. They can apparently run for a whole day before going tired. 

18th Century Cottage Replicas in the Bog Village

baby cows! so cute :) 

Fogher Cliffs

seriously in love with the landscape here -- it's breathtaking. 

Our last day, Sunday, was spent finishing up the Ring. We visited lots of scenic outlooks, a beach, a slate mine, Daniel O'Connell's house (a famous 19th cent politician), Skelling Experience, Killarney's National Park, and I even got to hold a baby lamb! Visiting the beach and holding the lamb were probably my favorite parts of the trip. The beach made me miss home a bit -- i missed that smell of the ocean breeze. Daniel O'Connell was a very well known and rich lawyer in the 19th century that helped bring parliament back into Ireland when it was still under British rule. Although he was seen as "the people's person", he was rather wealthy for the time period -- making 9,000 lbs a year when everyone else was make 9 -- and he didn't really give any financial support to the people so he kind of seemed stuck up to me, but we visited his mansion anyways and the lovely gardens surrounding it.

The Skelling Experience was a museum we visited that told all about Skelling Michael which is an island about 14 km (9 miles) off the coast where monks set up residence in the 7th century. It is quite edgy, with no real flat grounds to it yet the monks built their own stone churches and houses where they could worship in isolation. As well as building several stone stairs all the way up the hills. Since it's on the island it has been preserved very well and many of the houses and stairs are still in good condition. Hopefully I'll have a chance to go out and visit the island when tours open up in April. 

Here are some more pictures from the rest of the trip: 

i want a lamb! he was so soft ;) 

Daniel O'Connell's house

waterfall in Killarney National Park

so much green in the park -- i could spend days on end here, it's so beautiful!