As this post is published, I am sitting in a Delta airplane, preparing for a 9 hour flight back home :) Thanks, Ireland, for your hospitality and the experiences which will hopefully last me a lifetime in case I don't get back. But I want to, because you're too wonderful to see just once.
Inspired by Mr. Colin Kane and his music video blog when going home, I wanted to do the same to honor my time here:
Molly Malone
Leavin' On a Jet Plane
Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude
God Bless America
Georgia On My Mind
Moon River
Good-bye for now, but not forever, Ireland.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Best Day of the Trip
I went to Waterford yesterday! It was more than I could have dreamed it would be. I'll just be honest and admit that I teared up a couple of times; the sheer fact that I was there was unbelievable to me! Actually, I spent the majority of my time in Waterford... in Waterford, the business. I guess technically here they call it WWRD - Waterford Wedgwood something something - or the Waterford Visitor Centre. Regardless, coolest part of the whole shebang.
Yes, I did buy my own piece of Waterford yesterday - my first personal purchase but I'm sure not my last. It's getting shipped to America, though, so you'll have to wait for the photo. I may just not tell you what it is!
Here are a few pictures of my day. I'll write more later but now I have to go stuff everything into my suitcases and leave DCU...
My excitement just walking over the bridge into the city!
My lunch at the cafe in the Waterford Crystal Experience (yes that is a chocolate truffle with a side of fresh whipped cream)
That crystal went from this -
to this before my very eyes -
This work was so perfect...
He's drawing that butterfly!
Of course, one of the national symbols!
And, the piece du resistance - my dream dining room (with a few extra chandeliers). This entire table is covered in Waterford: plates, coffee cups, glasses, vases, serving dishes, silverware...
One last day in Dublin, folks! I think my hotel tonight has wi-fi, so I've got a couple more things to update before I leave... because what's the point in updating about Ireland once I'm gone?
Yes, I did buy my own piece of Waterford yesterday - my first personal purchase but I'm sure not my last. It's getting shipped to America, though, so you'll have to wait for the photo. I may just not tell you what it is!
Here are a few pictures of my day. I'll write more later but now I have to go stuff everything into my suitcases and leave DCU...
My excitement just walking over the bridge into the city!
My lunch at the cafe in the Waterford Crystal Experience (yes that is a chocolate truffle with a side of fresh whipped cream)
That crystal went from this -
to this before my very eyes -
This work was so perfect...
He's drawing that butterfly!
Of course, one of the national symbols!
And, the piece du resistance - my dream dining room (with a few extra chandeliers). This entire table is covered in Waterford: plates, coffee cups, glasses, vases, serving dishes, silverware...
One last day in Dublin, folks! I think my hotel tonight has wi-fi, so I've got a couple more things to update before I leave... because what's the point in updating about Ireland once I'm gone?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A whirlwind of traveling
I have been so many places in the past few days. Here's a quick rundown before dinner!
Monday: St. Patrick's Cathedral
Tuesday: Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, Corcomroe Abbey, and Poulnabrone
Wednesday: Stokestown Park House and Famine museum, the National Museum of Country Life
Thursday: Croagh Patrick, a depressing valley that I can't remember the name of, Connemara
Good stuff. dinnertime!
Monday: St. Patrick's Cathedral
Tuesday: Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, Corcomroe Abbey, and Poulnabrone
Wednesday: Stokestown Park House and Famine museum, the National Museum of Country Life
Thursday: Croagh Patrick, a depressing valley that I can't remember the name of, Connemara
Good stuff. dinnertime!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Finishing up week two
Sorry, guys! I haven't done a very good job of keeping this blog updated every day. I'll try to do better these next few days, but then I'm gone on a 4 day field trip, and I don't think we'll have internet.
Wednesday was, like I said, cold and rainy. We went to Tailor's Guild, which was an old building that housed the tailor's guild - the group of men in the area that had been granted permission to work as tailors. It wasn't very interesting, unfortunately.
After that, Sara and Steve walked with me to find St. Patrick's Cathedral and then we headed onto St. Stephen's Green. We walked around a little bit, and while we were trying to find the statue of W.B. Yeats, we stumbled upon a comedy troupe performing Hamlet in the park. It was hilarious. I wish that I had recorded it on my camera. There were only three actors - two guys and a girl - and for some strange reason the girl was playing the parts of neither the Queen nor Ophelia. Well, it made for a funny retelling. They were advertising for the Dublin Shakespeare Festival being held at Trinity this weekend. It's fun stumbling onto things like that in Dublin's parks.
We moved on to the Hairy Lemon - yes, that is the name of the pub. I got cottage pie, and it was fairly yummy. I then headed back to St. Patrick's for the organ concert that was to be at 6:30 that evening. I got there way ahead of time and actually got to sit in on the choral evensong service in the cathedral. It was beautiful. I didn't understand any of the Latin songs, but when they sang the Magnificat in glorious imitation... well, let's say that the NAWM (Norton's Anthology of Western Music) doesn't do any of those chants,etc justice.
The organ concert was pretty sweet, too. David Leigh, the organist for St. Patrick's Cathedral, is playing Louis Vierne's Six Symphonies this summer. I heard No.2 and No. 3. They were fascinating. When the organ was playing loudly, the whole cathedral was filled with the sound; I could FEEL the low notes almost more than I could hear them. Gorgeous.
Thursday, June 10
Class as usual in the morning, then off to meet Don for our 1916 Walking Tour. We'd just finished talking about the Easter Rising in class a few days before, so Don showed us a lot of the places in the city that were involved in that day or the events afterward. We walked down O'Connell Street past the General Post Office, where Padraig (Patrick) Pearse read the proclamation. We passed Jim Larkin's statue and Daniel O'Connell's monument on our way to Trinity College. Then we headed up to a side-trip to see the outline of the Viking Village next to St. Audoen's, back across the river Liffey to see Four Courts, and were done.
I went shopping at Penney's, this really inexpensive store all over the city (and country, I'm sure). Definitely just needed a new purse since mine had broked - got a scarf and summer jacket, too :)
Thursday night we went out to McGowan's to celebrate Ariel's 20th birthday. She'd been sick on Tuesday so we delayed the celebration, and it was even better since we didn't have class the next day! It could have been a night of disasters: we took the wrong bus, got off at the wrong stop, and almost couldn't find the pub in time (we were trying to beat the cover charge). Thankfully, we asked some nice Dubliners, showed the guards our IDs, and walked through as the lady was opening her money bag. She let us in for free (it's 7 euros! I don't want to pay that!). We were there for a looonnngggg time. It's a good place. They play good American music and gets crowded enough for it to be a good time without being uncomfortable.
Friday, June 11, 2010
We didn't have class today, but we had to meet Martin at Trinity at 10 am to get to Kilmainham Gaol (jail) for our field trip of the day. Oh my, it was depressing. They told us the story of one man, Joseph Plunkett, who was in jail for being involved in the Easter Rising. He married his sweetheart in the jail's chapel the night before he was executed. She, Grace Gifford, then ended up spending time there herself some years later for basically having taken up her husband's cause. Another man, Patrick Pearse, told his mother that she'd be find because she'd still have her other son, William. What Patrick didn't know was that his brother was in the cell next to him and was executed days after he was. Ugh. There are more stories, but I think I've depressed us all enough for one night.
I'm trying to remember what we did Friday afternoon and night... OH MY GOSH! How could I have forgotten?!
Steve, Sara, and I went to the Dublin zoo :) I love the zoo. I don't know why - we would go on family trips and now Seth likes to go to the one in Columbia, so I guess it's a good thing. I just think they're fun. Anyway, it was great. I saw penguins and tigers and monkeys and peacocks and a bunch of others.
Then we hopped on the bus and stopped at the Milkshake Bar. That is not a joke, people. This restaurant of all things wonderful (milkshakes) exists. And oh the options! Except, I don't know what is in most European candy bars, so I stuck with what I knew and yet was still not typical - an After Eight milkshake. YUM.
That night, Seth and I had a skype date and watched the Glee finale. What?! I have to live a normal life here! And it was the finale!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
I slept in till noon. :) Sara and I had plans to go to the Dublin Writer's Museum, but I figured I'd missed her knock. Turns out she slept in till noon, too! So we went to the museum. I was more tagging along because I didn't have anything else to do; she was going because she's an English major and it's what she does. Little did I know that one of the coolest pieces of history, in my opinion, would be waiting for me there.
Ok, so it's a chair, you say. Wait for it....
Needless to say, I freaked out. I'm ignoring the "reputedly" part of that plaque. He sat in it. So...
I sat next to it. Kind of like back in the old days when people would sit at the feet of teachers. I'm still in awe.
Oh gosh... then this crazy lady comes in while we're still in the room, and throws her bag into the chair so she can fix her sweater! I almost freaked out. I still can't believe she did that.
Anyway, the rest of the museum was quite interesting. It made me want to read most of the stories from the writers in there. Some of the more notable: Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, George Bernard Shaw, author of Pygmalion (adapted into My Fair Lady), and of course James Joyce, author of Ulysses.
Sara grabbed another milkshake, we shopped at Avoca for awhile (that store kills me; I want it all, but have absolutely no use for a wool blanket in the south!), and headed to get me something cold to drink. I had been craving a Starbuck's passionfruit iced tea (blame Seth), couldn't find anything similar elsewhere, but I'd been trying to avoid going to Starbuck's. It's too American for Ireland. We went anyway, but DUH - the reason that no other place had a nice fruity iced tea is because they don't drink iced teas here. Starbuck's didn't have it. I got elderflower water instead, which was actually just as delicious. Then we met Steve and headed to watch the World Cup England v. USA at.... the Hairy Lemon. I know. The other boys picked it.
We all crammed into the biggest booth right in front of one of the TVs, sang the national anthem, and were quickly stunned with that score in the fourth minute. But everyone knows about Green's mishap, so we tied! We'll be in the west of Ireland for the second match, but I'm sure we'll find somewhere to watch it!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Today we went to Dun Laoghaire, another seaside "fishing village" as I call them - more like a coastal suburb of Dublin. These towns are so cute. They had a market, like Howth, but this one was better. I got falafel and shopped around a bit, but I can't tell you what I bought. ;)
We just did a lot of walking today, saw the James Joyce museum and two more castles. The clouds were looking more and more ominous as the afternoon passed, though, so we decided to head back to the DART station a little early. It's a good thing we decided to nix the pier walk or we would have been just as drenched as we were last week in Howth!
We grabbed dinner back in Dublin, and I've been resting up for this next week. On the schedule: class tomorrow, the Cliffs of Moher on Tuesday, and then the whole class is going on a 4 day field trip to the west of Ireland. We'll be back Saturday afternoon!
Wednesday was, like I said, cold and rainy. We went to Tailor's Guild, which was an old building that housed the tailor's guild - the group of men in the area that had been granted permission to work as tailors. It wasn't very interesting, unfortunately.
After that, Sara and Steve walked with me to find St. Patrick's Cathedral and then we headed onto St. Stephen's Green. We walked around a little bit, and while we were trying to find the statue of W.B. Yeats, we stumbled upon a comedy troupe performing Hamlet in the park. It was hilarious. I wish that I had recorded it on my camera. There were only three actors - two guys and a girl - and for some strange reason the girl was playing the parts of neither the Queen nor Ophelia. Well, it made for a funny retelling. They were advertising for the Dublin Shakespeare Festival being held at Trinity this weekend. It's fun stumbling onto things like that in Dublin's parks.
We moved on to the Hairy Lemon - yes, that is the name of the pub. I got cottage pie, and it was fairly yummy. I then headed back to St. Patrick's for the organ concert that was to be at 6:30 that evening. I got there way ahead of time and actually got to sit in on the choral evensong service in the cathedral. It was beautiful. I didn't understand any of the Latin songs, but when they sang the Magnificat in glorious imitation... well, let's say that the NAWM (Norton's Anthology of Western Music) doesn't do any of those chants,etc justice.
The organ concert was pretty sweet, too. David Leigh, the organist for St. Patrick's Cathedral, is playing Louis Vierne's Six Symphonies this summer. I heard No.2 and No. 3. They were fascinating. When the organ was playing loudly, the whole cathedral was filled with the sound; I could FEEL the low notes almost more than I could hear them. Gorgeous.
Thursday, June 10
Class as usual in the morning, then off to meet Don for our 1916 Walking Tour. We'd just finished talking about the Easter Rising in class a few days before, so Don showed us a lot of the places in the city that were involved in that day or the events afterward. We walked down O'Connell Street past the General Post Office, where Padraig (Patrick) Pearse read the proclamation. We passed Jim Larkin's statue and Daniel O'Connell's monument on our way to Trinity College. Then we headed up to a side-trip to see the outline of the Viking Village next to St. Audoen's, back across the river Liffey to see Four Courts, and were done.
I went shopping at Penney's, this really inexpensive store all over the city (and country, I'm sure). Definitely just needed a new purse since mine had broked - got a scarf and summer jacket, too :)
Thursday night we went out to McGowan's to celebrate Ariel's 20th birthday. She'd been sick on Tuesday so we delayed the celebration, and it was even better since we didn't have class the next day! It could have been a night of disasters: we took the wrong bus, got off at the wrong stop, and almost couldn't find the pub in time (we were trying to beat the cover charge). Thankfully, we asked some nice Dubliners, showed the guards our IDs, and walked through as the lady was opening her money bag. She let us in for free (it's 7 euros! I don't want to pay that!). We were there for a looonnngggg time. It's a good place. They play good American music and gets crowded enough for it to be a good time without being uncomfortable.
Friday, June 11, 2010
We didn't have class today, but we had to meet Martin at Trinity at 10 am to get to Kilmainham Gaol (jail) for our field trip of the day. Oh my, it was depressing. They told us the story of one man, Joseph Plunkett, who was in jail for being involved in the Easter Rising. He married his sweetheart in the jail's chapel the night before he was executed. She, Grace Gifford, then ended up spending time there herself some years later for basically having taken up her husband's cause. Another man, Patrick Pearse, told his mother that she'd be find because she'd still have her other son, William. What Patrick didn't know was that his brother was in the cell next to him and was executed days after he was. Ugh. There are more stories, but I think I've depressed us all enough for one night.
I'm trying to remember what we did Friday afternoon and night... OH MY GOSH! How could I have forgotten?!
Steve, Sara, and I went to the Dublin zoo :) I love the zoo. I don't know why - we would go on family trips and now Seth likes to go to the one in Columbia, so I guess it's a good thing. I just think they're fun. Anyway, it was great. I saw penguins and tigers and monkeys and peacocks and a bunch of others.
Then we hopped on the bus and stopped at the Milkshake Bar. That is not a joke, people. This restaurant of all things wonderful (milkshakes) exists. And oh the options! Except, I don't know what is in most European candy bars, so I stuck with what I knew and yet was still not typical - an After Eight milkshake. YUM.
That night, Seth and I had a skype date and watched the Glee finale. What?! I have to live a normal life here! And it was the finale!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
I slept in till noon. :) Sara and I had plans to go to the Dublin Writer's Museum, but I figured I'd missed her knock. Turns out she slept in till noon, too! So we went to the museum. I was more tagging along because I didn't have anything else to do; she was going because she's an English major and it's what she does. Little did I know that one of the coolest pieces of history, in my opinion, would be waiting for me there.
Ok, so it's a chair, you say. Wait for it....
Oh gosh... then this crazy lady comes in while we're still in the room, and throws her bag into the chair so she can fix her sweater! I almost freaked out. I still can't believe she did that.
Anyway, the rest of the museum was quite interesting. It made me want to read most of the stories from the writers in there. Some of the more notable: Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, George Bernard Shaw, author of Pygmalion (adapted into My Fair Lady), and of course James Joyce, author of Ulysses.
Sara grabbed another milkshake, we shopped at Avoca for awhile (that store kills me; I want it all, but have absolutely no use for a wool blanket in the south!), and headed to get me something cold to drink. I had been craving a Starbuck's passionfruit iced tea (blame Seth), couldn't find anything similar elsewhere, but I'd been trying to avoid going to Starbuck's. It's too American for Ireland. We went anyway, but DUH - the reason that no other place had a nice fruity iced tea is because they don't drink iced teas here. Starbuck's didn't have it. I got elderflower water instead, which was actually just as delicious. Then we met Steve and headed to watch the World Cup England v. USA at.... the Hairy Lemon. I know. The other boys picked it.
We all crammed into the biggest booth right in front of one of the TVs, sang the national anthem, and were quickly stunned with that score in the fourth minute. But everyone knows about Green's mishap, so we tied! We'll be in the west of Ireland for the second match, but I'm sure we'll find somewhere to watch it!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Today we went to Dun Laoghaire, another seaside "fishing village" as I call them - more like a coastal suburb of Dublin. These towns are so cute. They had a market, like Howth, but this one was better. I got falafel and shopped around a bit, but I can't tell you what I bought. ;)
We just did a lot of walking today, saw the James Joyce museum and two more castles. The clouds were looking more and more ominous as the afternoon passed, though, so we decided to head back to the DART station a little early. It's a good thing we decided to nix the pier walk or we would have been just as drenched as we were last week in Howth!
We grabbed dinner back in Dublin, and I've been resting up for this next week. On the schedule: class tomorrow, the Cliffs of Moher on Tuesday, and then the whole class is going on a 4 day field trip to the west of Ireland. We'll be back Saturday afternoon!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Oh the weather outside is...
Chilly and rainy. We got spoiled by a week of wonderful weather. Now it's been raining since Sunday. I mean, I hate to complain, because everything else about Dublin is great, but seriously.
Off to class now, then lunch, a tour of Tailor's Hall (we don't know what it is, either!), dinner, and an organ concert at St. Patrick's!!!
Off to class now, then lunch, a tour of Tailor's Hall (we don't know what it is, either!), dinner, and an organ concert at St. Patrick's!!!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Put a Cork in it!
Because once you've kissed the Blarney stone, you receive the gift of gab!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Sara, Steve, and I got up rreeeaaalllllllllllyyyy early Saturday morning (5 am) to head down to Cork. We hailed a taxi to Heuston station for our 7 am train. The train ride took us through beautiful countryside for 3 hours; Sara and Steve fell asleep... I didn't. Anyway, we got to Cork and walked to the bus station where we saw three of our classmates who had been in Cork and were leaving for Tralee. We saw them off and then hopped on our bus to Blarney. Once we got to Blarney (which is an extremely small town) we grabbed a quick bite to eat, paid our admission fee, and started exploring! Steve and I crawled through the "cavern" to get into the dungeon... it was not pleasant.
We got back out, thankfully, and headed up the teeny-tiny spiral staircase inside the castle (sorry, no pictures because it was too darn scary!). The castle was set up in an interesting way. It had two spiral staircases and every room had a doorway off of one of the staircases. We stopped in most of the rooms but finally made our way to the top of the castle where the Blarney stone was! Well I had no idea we were there already, but sure enough, there it was! I kissed it first :) It's really weird. There are two men there - one to help/hold you and one to take your picture. You have to lie on your back, hold the rail, and shift your head and weight down and back over the gap to kiss the stone. It was fun, though! (I bought the picture, by the way... duh!)
We climbed back down, passing through a few more rooms. I think the most interesting was called the Murder Hole: in the event of attackers, there was a hole in the ceiling of the entrance way and the people inside the house could get up above the intruders and either throw things on them or pour burning oil on their heads. OUCH.
We went outside, and because it was SUCH a beautiful day, we laid out on the grass and rested for half an hour in the sun. Then when it got cloudy again, we got up and walked into the mystical garden they have on the grounds. It was weird... stuff about witches and druids .... We didn't go to the Blarney house (I'm not sure what's there). We left and went shopping at Blarney Woolen Mills - listen to me: if you're ever in Blarney, take 2 hours to shop at that store. It's huge and awesome. I was finally able to find some items to buy for my family. There was also a Waterford section in the store... it was beautiful. There was a Waterford cake topper that I have never seen before and wanted really badly but it was 100 euros and so I decided against it.
We finally got out of there and rounded the corner to its very own restaurant. I had beef and guinness pie... tasted exactly like beef stew, but who am I to say? We hopped on the train back to Cork, walked around the city center for a little bit, then got back to the train station to ride back to Dublin. We got back in Dublin around 11 pm, took a taxi back to campus through the crowds (Westlife had just finished a concert at Croke), and hopped in bed... because we were off on an adventure to Howth the next morning!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Sara, Steve, and I (this blog's web address is eerily appropriate) left not quite as early Sunday to head to Howth. We could actually ride the bus to the DART station because it was 10 am. Thankfully, we found the DART and bought our tickets in time because the train to Howth was leaving in 1 minute! After about 30 minutes on the DART, I smelled it - ocean air! Salt! fish! I could've closed my eyes and felt at home... except it was 60 degrees. It was not wonderful weather like the week before, but it was good enough for us.
We stopped first at the market, where of all things I bought Italian pesto from the Italian man. However, it was delicious and I wanted it. Sara got this beautiful raspberry white chocolate cupcake from the market. The fresh fruits and vegetables looked scrumptious, but we had nowhere to put them so we didn't get anything. We walked out to the end of the first pier, and on our way back, guess what we saw -
SEALS!!! Oh they were grand. A little boy and his mother were feeding them, so they were all gathered at the corner of the pier and one of them was slapping his "arm" on the water. Steve got so excited! Once they weren't being fed, though, they tired of us. So we left.
We walked around the seaside part of Howth for a little bit, trying to find somewhere to eat lunch. We found a little tea room, ate a hearty lunch, and headed off for the cliff walk. It was breathtaking up there on the cliffs. If it hadn't been so cloudy/rainy, we could've seen even farther than we did.
Trust me, that water is not as close as it seems, nor is that cliff as gentle as it seems. The signs were almost insulting to the intelligent mind - as if we couldn't figure that out! I am actually holding on for dear life. We got to the summit where we could see Howth Head's lighthouse and the southern tip of Howth, and headed back on the upper cliffs towards town. By now it was raining steadily. We got back into town, walked out onto the other end of the pier, got caught in DRENCHING rains, and hurried to Beshoff Bros. for what they said was the No. 1 fish and chips. I'd have to agree. We ate it on the train, but it was sooo yummy. Makes me want to go back!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Today was a bank holiday in Ireland, so we didn't have classes. I also didn't have any excursions planned because the last week wore me out! So I slept in, got some readings for class done, went grocery shopping, took a nap, got the rest of my work done, did my laundry, ate some pasta with my new pesto, and finally got these blogs up to date! YAY! It's been a nice lazy day, but now that it's almost midnight here and class starts back tomorrow, I'm going to call it a night. Hope you've enjoyed my retellings of my journeys!
Shelley
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Sara, Steve, and I got up rreeeaaalllllllllllyyyy early Saturday morning (5 am) to head down to Cork. We hailed a taxi to Heuston station for our 7 am train. The train ride took us through beautiful countryside for 3 hours; Sara and Steve fell asleep... I didn't. Anyway, we got to Cork and walked to the bus station where we saw three of our classmates who had been in Cork and were leaving for Tralee. We saw them off and then hopped on our bus to Blarney. Once we got to Blarney (which is an extremely small town) we grabbed a quick bite to eat, paid our admission fee, and started exploring! Steve and I crawled through the "cavern" to get into the dungeon... it was not pleasant.
We climbed back down, passing through a few more rooms. I think the most interesting was called the Murder Hole: in the event of attackers, there was a hole in the ceiling of the entrance way and the people inside the house could get up above the intruders and either throw things on them or pour burning oil on their heads. OUCH.
We went outside, and because it was SUCH a beautiful day, we laid out on the grass and rested for half an hour in the sun. Then when it got cloudy again, we got up and walked into the mystical garden they have on the grounds. It was weird... stuff about witches and druids .... We didn't go to the Blarney house (I'm not sure what's there). We left and went shopping at Blarney Woolen Mills - listen to me: if you're ever in Blarney, take 2 hours to shop at that store. It's huge and awesome. I was finally able to find some items to buy for my family. There was also a Waterford section in the store... it was beautiful. There was a Waterford cake topper that I have never seen before and wanted really badly but it was 100 euros and so I decided against it.
We finally got out of there and rounded the corner to its very own restaurant. I had beef and guinness pie... tasted exactly like beef stew, but who am I to say? We hopped on the train back to Cork, walked around the city center for a little bit, then got back to the train station to ride back to Dublin. We got back in Dublin around 11 pm, took a taxi back to campus through the crowds (Westlife had just finished a concert at Croke), and hopped in bed... because we were off on an adventure to Howth the next morning!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Sara, Steve, and I (this blog's web address is eerily appropriate) left not quite as early Sunday to head to Howth. We could actually ride the bus to the DART station because it was 10 am. Thankfully, we found the DART and bought our tickets in time because the train to Howth was leaving in 1 minute! After about 30 minutes on the DART, I smelled it - ocean air! Salt! fish! I could've closed my eyes and felt at home... except it was 60 degrees. It was not wonderful weather like the week before, but it was good enough for us.
We stopped first at the market, where of all things I bought Italian pesto from the Italian man. However, it was delicious and I wanted it. Sara got this beautiful raspberry white chocolate cupcake from the market. The fresh fruits and vegetables looked scrumptious, but we had nowhere to put them so we didn't get anything. We walked out to the end of the first pier, and on our way back, guess what we saw -
SEALS!!! Oh they were grand. A little boy and his mother were feeding them, so they were all gathered at the corner of the pier and one of them was slapping his "arm" on the water. Steve got so excited! Once they weren't being fed, though, they tired of us. So we left.
We walked around the seaside part of Howth for a little bit, trying to find somewhere to eat lunch. We found a little tea room, ate a hearty lunch, and headed off for the cliff walk. It was breathtaking up there on the cliffs. If it hadn't been so cloudy/rainy, we could've seen even farther than we did.
Trust me, that water is not as close as it seems, nor is that cliff as gentle as it seems. The signs were almost insulting to the intelligent mind - as if we couldn't figure that out! I am actually holding on for dear life. We got to the summit where we could see Howth Head's lighthouse and the southern tip of Howth, and headed back on the upper cliffs towards town. By now it was raining steadily. We got back into town, walked out onto the other end of the pier, got caught in DRENCHING rains, and hurried to Beshoff Bros. for what they said was the No. 1 fish and chips. I'd have to agree. We ate it on the train, but it was sooo yummy. Makes me want to go back!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Today was a bank holiday in Ireland, so we didn't have classes. I also didn't have any excursions planned because the last week wore me out! So I slept in, got some readings for class done, went grocery shopping, took a nap, got the rest of my work done, did my laundry, ate some pasta with my new pesto, and finally got these blogs up to date! YAY! It's been a nice lazy day, but now that it's almost midnight here and class starts back tomorrow, I'm going to call it a night. Hope you've enjoyed my retellings of my journeys!
Shelley
Thursday and Friday
Thursday, June 3, 2010 continued...
Thursday afternoon, we met Martin downtown for a trip to the National Museum. That didn't work out so well... we were supposed to leave campus at 2, which I and 3 others did, but the other 18 didn't get there till around 2:45. Anyway, the National Museum was nifty. I, unfortunately, wasn't in a museum mood (and you couldn't take pictures!) but I do remember a lot of what we saw. We saw artifacts that had been preserved almost perfectly in the peat bogs of Ireland; things like fur capes, wood designs, and even PEOPLE from long ago. I'm not joking: there were 3 people, at least partially. It was gross. They had skin, and hair if they had a head (one was decapitated). Eeewww. I didn't look at the whole body that had been found preserved... Moving on! They had a large exhibit of Viking artifacts: swords and other weapons, jewelry, buttons, coins, games, shoes and other leather objects, etc. There was also a lot of gold jewelry from later than the Vikings and carved rocks from the Celts.
Sara, Steve, and I tried to get into the National Library (right across from the National Museum, in the same complex as Parliament), but it was confusing so we just left. We went shopping instead! We didn't actually buy anything, but we were looking for wool shops for sweaters and scarves and such. We found a few, committed the prices to memory, and decided to wait until after this weekend's trip to some villages to buy anything. After that, I split off from them, grabbed a smoothie for dinner (NO potatoes!), and did a little more window shopping of my own. I grabbed a watch for 5 euros, because otherwise I had no way of telling the time. Then I headed back to campus.
At 9, I wandered with Cayla and Ariel over to the Hub to hang out for a bit. Jake and Andrew walked in and invited us out for the night, so we decided to go. Weeellllllllllllllll... 2 hours later (don't ask), we headed to McGowan's. I had a good time. We sat for awhile and just hung out, then got up on the dance floor more to have something to do and to watch the Irish than anything else. It's a funny thing: they play American music, so we know it all, and the Irish girls dance together in the middle of the floor while the guys just hang around them.
Friday, June 4, 2010
We didn't have class on Friday, so everyone made plans for our 4-day weekend. A lot of people went out of town on Friday, many to Galway and a few to other places. I stayed in and was a tourist in Dublin for the day. I was on the bus at campus around 9:30 and my first stop of the day was Trinity College. It was founded right before the 1600s on an old monastery site (when the monks were forced off the land, they supposedly cursed the spot of the altar, located under the Bell Tower). Anyway, it's beautiful:
That's a picture with the bell tower in the front and looking through it to see the oldest three buildings on campus. Now it has a lot more buildings and at least two more squares. Trinity College also has one of the oldest and most beautiful library rooms in the country - they built it to look like Trinity Cambridge's library, but it has a whopping 6 more feet of space, making it larger! They're very proud. It is also the largest single room library in the world. However, I couldn't take pictures of that room. It's not really functional as a library: apparently, as my guide said, the students are allowed to check out the books, but 80 percent of the books housed there are out-of-date and the other 20 percent are too hard to find because the books aren't shelved by author or Dewey decimal - they're shelved by length, width, and height. It's true. The biggest books are on the bottom shelves and the smallest are on the top shelves!
Trinity College houses the Book of Kells, a collection of the four Gospels from 800 AD. I couldn't get pictures of it, either, but it's beautiful. The illumination work was incredible, and to think that they did that all by candlelight!
After Trinity, I met with Sara and Steve for lunch at Lemon, a crepe restaurant - YUM. From there, I tried to see Dublin's city hall, but it was closed for a wedding. So, I went back to Dublin Castle to see more of the grounds and to check out the Chester Beatty library. The library was pretty awesome, because it housed the oldest known manuscript of the Bible found to date, a small scrap of Greek text on papyrus with words from the book of John from 150 AD. There were many other small pages of text of the Gospels and of Paul's letters from 200-300 AD. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea that these texts were copied as close as 120 years from Jesus' death and resurrection, and the original text had not long been passed around before it got where the author copied it onto the papyrus I saw. Breathtaking. (of course, no pictures allowed there either, but I got a postcard!)
After Dublin Castle, I went back to Christ Church and took pictures this time. It's just so beautiful. I tried to see the artwork in the National Gallery, but I had done a lot of walking in the hot (75 degree) weather and was too tired to see much of it before I headed back to the bus and campus.
Thursday afternoon, we met Martin downtown for a trip to the National Museum. That didn't work out so well... we were supposed to leave campus at 2, which I and 3 others did, but the other 18 didn't get there till around 2:45. Anyway, the National Museum was nifty. I, unfortunately, wasn't in a museum mood (and you couldn't take pictures!) but I do remember a lot of what we saw. We saw artifacts that had been preserved almost perfectly in the peat bogs of Ireland; things like fur capes, wood designs, and even PEOPLE from long ago. I'm not joking: there were 3 people, at least partially. It was gross. They had skin, and hair if they had a head (one was decapitated). Eeewww. I didn't look at the whole body that had been found preserved... Moving on! They had a large exhibit of Viking artifacts: swords and other weapons, jewelry, buttons, coins, games, shoes and other leather objects, etc. There was also a lot of gold jewelry from later than the Vikings and carved rocks from the Celts. Sara, Steve, and I tried to get into the National Library (right across from the National Museum, in the same complex as Parliament), but it was confusing so we just left. We went shopping instead! We didn't actually buy anything, but we were looking for wool shops for sweaters and scarves and such. We found a few, committed the prices to memory, and decided to wait until after this weekend's trip to some villages to buy anything. After that, I split off from them, grabbed a smoothie for dinner (NO potatoes!), and did a little more window shopping of my own. I grabbed a watch for 5 euros, because otherwise I had no way of telling the time. Then I headed back to campus.
At 9, I wandered with Cayla and Ariel over to the Hub to hang out for a bit. Jake and Andrew walked in and invited us out for the night, so we decided to go. Weeellllllllllllllll... 2 hours later (don't ask), we headed to McGowan's. I had a good time. We sat for awhile and just hung out, then got up on the dance floor more to have something to do and to watch the Irish than anything else. It's a funny thing: they play American music, so we know it all, and the Irish girls dance together in the middle of the floor while the guys just hang around them.
Friday, June 4, 2010
We didn't have class on Friday, so everyone made plans for our 4-day weekend. A lot of people went out of town on Friday, many to Galway and a few to other places. I stayed in and was a tourist in Dublin for the day. I was on the bus at campus around 9:30 and my first stop of the day was Trinity College. It was founded right before the 1600s on an old monastery site (when the monks were forced off the land, they supposedly cursed the spot of the altar, located under the Bell Tower). Anyway, it's beautiful:
Trinity College houses the Book of Kells, a collection of the four Gospels from 800 AD. I couldn't get pictures of it, either, but it's beautiful. The illumination work was incredible, and to think that they did that all by candlelight!
After Trinity, I met with Sara and Steve for lunch at Lemon, a crepe restaurant - YUM. From there, I tried to see Dublin's city hall, but it was closed for a wedding. So, I went back to Dublin Castle to see more of the grounds and to check out the Chester Beatty library. The library was pretty awesome, because it housed the oldest known manuscript of the Bible found to date, a small scrap of Greek text on papyrus with words from the book of John from 150 AD. There were many other small pages of text of the Gospels and of Paul's letters from 200-300 AD. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea that these texts were copied as close as 120 years from Jesus' death and resurrection, and the original text had not long been passed around before it got where the author copied it onto the papyrus I saw. Breathtaking. (of course, no pictures allowed there either, but I got a postcard!)
After Dublin Castle, I went back to Christ Church and took pictures this time. It's just so beautiful. I tried to see the artwork in the National Gallery, but I had done a lot of walking in the hot (75 degree) weather and was too tired to see much of it before I headed back to the bus and campus.
Friday, June 4, 2010
What a day... times five!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Class has been quite interesting. We spent two days on the history of Ireland from BC till around 1800, right before the famine. Martin, our assistant coordinator and teacher this week, has done a fantastic job of explaining how the Irish became who they are today and why the relationship with Britain is so strange. He talked a good bit of the parallels between America and our colonization and revolution and Ireland's similar history. He also was able to explain - not fully, but that's because it's a difficult subject - what caused the separation of the northern 6 counties into what we now know as Northern Ireland and why there was so much turmoil up until recently (and the current trends!). It's intriguing. You'll have to ask me if you're interested, because it's too much to go into here.
We went to St. Audoen's Church Wednesday afternoon. I can't say it was gorgeous (you'll see what a gorgeous church is in a few minutes), but it was unbelievable to think that I was standing in a room built in the 1100s. That's almost 400 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue; over 600 years before America declared independence, and 900 years from today. Whoa. The church was built in stages throughout the centuries, as different invaders and rulers changed the religions and required different things. This picture is of an excavation site within the church building that was built in the 1400s. They found a cobblestone path from the 1200s that led down to the river Liffey under the building:
Then we went to Christ Church (I have a few pictures from before my camera died). Here's a beautiful church:
There's so much to say about this church that I can't even remember it all. One of my favorite historical facts is that Christ Church's choir combined with St. Patrick's choir to perform in the FIRST performance of Handel's Messiah. Handel conducted it. I wish I could have been there.
After those two churches, we went to Dublin Castle (it's more of a palace than castle, though). The neatest part about Dublin Castle is that it is still in use by the government. They have their inaugurations there every 7 years of the Irish President, they still use it for state dinners, And some of the rooms have been displayed in shows and movies like The Tudors. Here's a picture of the outside of the part of the castle (unfortunately, some of it was destroyed when an accidental fire spread throughout the wooden castle and hit the powder storage tower).
My favorite room had these huge Waterford chandeliers in them: the ladies' sitting room - I am jealous.
After Dublin Castle, we shopped a little and ate at Messrs Maguire's, a microbrewery on the Liffey. I think I mentioned it in the last post.
Thursday, June 3, 2010:
Well Thursday we discussed the famine. Holy cow, what a downer. I'm sure you all know that the famine devastated Ireland; if you didn't, here's a fact: there were more people - over 8 million - in Ireland in 1830 than there are today - around 4.5 million. Martin said it was the only country in the world to experience that loss of population. Here's another fact: the famine was not a total failure of all crops, just the potato crop. Ireland was still exporting grains, vegetables, and fruit to Britain (forced to export, I mean). The potato crop, however, had become the sole crop grown by the poor Irish Catholic tenant farmers. So when it failed, they had absolutely nothing to eat, which then led to them not being able to work and being vulnerable to diseases, which led to them being evicted, which led to their death. It's a terrible, terrible story, and yet one that teaches a lot of lessons. There were so many variables - cultural, political, economic - that had been in place for years that it is impossible to name one ultimate reason why it happened.
to be continued....
Class has been quite interesting. We spent two days on the history of Ireland from BC till around 1800, right before the famine. Martin, our assistant coordinator and teacher this week, has done a fantastic job of explaining how the Irish became who they are today and why the relationship with Britain is so strange. He talked a good bit of the parallels between America and our colonization and revolution and Ireland's similar history. He also was able to explain - not fully, but that's because it's a difficult subject - what caused the separation of the northern 6 counties into what we now know as Northern Ireland and why there was so much turmoil up until recently (and the current trends!). It's intriguing. You'll have to ask me if you're interested, because it's too much to go into here.
We went to St. Audoen's Church Wednesday afternoon. I can't say it was gorgeous (you'll see what a gorgeous church is in a few minutes), but it was unbelievable to think that I was standing in a room built in the 1100s. That's almost 400 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue; over 600 years before America declared independence, and 900 years from today. Whoa. The church was built in stages throughout the centuries, as different invaders and rulers changed the religions and required different things. This picture is of an excavation site within the church building that was built in the 1400s. They found a cobblestone path from the 1200s that led down to the river Liffey under the building:
Then we went to Christ Church (I have a few pictures from before my camera died). Here's a beautiful church:
After those two churches, we went to Dublin Castle (it's more of a palace than castle, though). The neatest part about Dublin Castle is that it is still in use by the government. They have their inaugurations there every 7 years of the Irish President, they still use it for state dinners, And some of the rooms have been displayed in shows and movies like The Tudors. Here's a picture of the outside of the part of the castle (unfortunately, some of it was destroyed when an accidental fire spread throughout the wooden castle and hit the powder storage tower).
My favorite room had these huge Waterford chandeliers in them: the ladies' sitting room - I am jealous.
After Dublin Castle, we shopped a little and ate at Messrs Maguire's, a microbrewery on the Liffey. I think I mentioned it in the last post.
Thursday, June 3, 2010:
Well Thursday we discussed the famine. Holy cow, what a downer. I'm sure you all know that the famine devastated Ireland; if you didn't, here's a fact: there were more people - over 8 million - in Ireland in 1830 than there are today - around 4.5 million. Martin said it was the only country in the world to experience that loss of population. Here's another fact: the famine was not a total failure of all crops, just the potato crop. Ireland was still exporting grains, vegetables, and fruit to Britain (forced to export, I mean). The potato crop, however, had become the sole crop grown by the poor Irish Catholic tenant farmers. So when it failed, they had absolutely nothing to eat, which then led to them not being able to work and being vulnerable to diseases, which led to them being evicted, which led to their death. It's a terrible, terrible story, and yet one that teaches a lot of lessons. There were so many variables - cultural, political, economic - that had been in place for years that it is impossible to name one ultimate reason why it happened.
to be continued....
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
What a terrible time...
FOR MY CAMERA TO DIE!
It died today, the first day that I was going to really start taking pictures. Of course. AND of course today we went to two of the top highlights in Dublin - Christ Church and Dublin Castle. I have a few pictures and some of my friends here are sending me the pictures they took. I'll probably go back to Christ Church and pay to get back inside, and I'll go back to Dublin Castle but I don't need to go back inside there. I'll just get more pictures of the grounds and whatnot. It was beautiful enough!
Then Steve, Sarah, and I went shopping. We headed into this store my mom found called Avoca. Oh my gosh. Gorgeous. Handwoven scarves, blankets, clothes, and then plates and cups and accessories galore. I'm obsessed. I'll be back there soon. We finished up our shopping with a trip to Steve's pub of choice for the night: Messrs Maguire. It was yummy. I had potato pancakes (another way to eat them!) with smoked salmon. Delish.
Yesterday we went on a walking tour of downtown so we could learn to navigate it for ourselves. Then a group of us wandered about until we found O'Neill's, a pub near Trinity College. I had corned beef and cabbage - duh! So good. It came with as many vegetables as they served, but I only got three kinds of potatoes. Shame, I know.
This weekend is a four day weekend! We've got a lot planned, so you'll have to stay tuned to see where we go :)
It died today, the first day that I was going to really start taking pictures. Of course. AND of course today we went to two of the top highlights in Dublin - Christ Church and Dublin Castle. I have a few pictures and some of my friends here are sending me the pictures they took. I'll probably go back to Christ Church and pay to get back inside, and I'll go back to Dublin Castle but I don't need to go back inside there. I'll just get more pictures of the grounds and whatnot. It was beautiful enough!
Then Steve, Sarah, and I went shopping. We headed into this store my mom found called Avoca. Oh my gosh. Gorgeous. Handwoven scarves, blankets, clothes, and then plates and cups and accessories galore. I'm obsessed. I'll be back there soon. We finished up our shopping with a trip to Steve's pub of choice for the night: Messrs Maguire. It was yummy. I had potato pancakes (another way to eat them!) with smoked salmon. Delish.
Yesterday we went on a walking tour of downtown so we could learn to navigate it for ourselves. Then a group of us wandered about until we found O'Neill's, a pub near Trinity College. I had corned beef and cabbage - duh! So good. It came with as many vegetables as they served, but I only got three kinds of potatoes. Shame, I know.
This weekend is a four day weekend! We've got a lot planned, so you'll have to stay tuned to see where we go :)
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