My Waterford is here.
I haven't opened it yet, but when I do, I'll take a picture :)
YAY!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
A few odes to my travels...
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.
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.
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
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