Partying with Oliver

Tonight I was planning just to come back to Niland and crash because I was on campus for 10 hours. I did decide to go out and I did have fun after all, so it was all good.

We ended up at Bar No. 8, which was one of our stops on the pub crawl a few weeks ago. It is right behind our apartment, so we had the pleasure of running into our landlord Oliver! He is friends with the man who owns the bar so he bought us all 2 rounds of drinks (I was having Coke...9:00 class tomorrow) and we sang some Irish drinking songs. It was definitely a really good time. He actually remembered who we were and where we go to school, so that was impressive.

I'm so tired. I had lab this morning at 10:00 and then I had to be at school until 8:00 for classes and choir. It was a good day, though, despite the rain. I looked like a typical wimpy American with my rain boots, umbrella, and raincoat complete with hood. But, hey, I bought the stuff, so I might as well use it. Have a nice day.

Why did I buy a new umbrella...

...when I don't even bother to look out my window to see if it's raining? I've been so spoiled for the last two weeks because it has not rained at all. It was basically a drought in Ireland. This morning when I went to class it was a little colder than usual but dry. This afternoon when I left for my evening class, I got wet. And I hadn't even chosen my raincoat today so I was wet in my North Face. Luckily it wasn't too bad and everything is dry now. I will have to be more careful in the future so I can actually use that umbrella I paid 12 euro for.

In other news, tomorrow is my first choir rehearsal and we get pizza! It will be my first pizza in Ireland so I am very excited. I'm sad though because the first choir concert is in Sligo for the weekend of October 17-19 but I'll be in Paris. I guess I should just be happy that I'll be in Paris, haha.

I'm trying to make it to Thursday without going to an ATM because last week was an expensive week (did some hardcore shopping in town and Eyre Square mall...my closet was happy, my wallet was not). I've been collecting all my loose change in a pile and today I just noticed that it was getting to be a pretty big pile. So, I counted it and it was 15 euro! All right, gotta love those 2 euro coins that look like quarters. I also like looking at the coins because there's always a chance I got one from a different country. For some reason we get a lot of Spain's coins up here but I've also seen some from countries who, oddly, don't put their name on the coin. What's up with that? This weekend in Scotland I'll be using the pound which puts a lot of fear in my heart because, as terrible as the US dollar is against the euro, it's absolutely killed by the pound. That is another reason we have not planned a trip to London...it's really depressing on our debit cards.

A pile of euro change. The 1 euro and 2 euro coins are two tone and the pennies are very tiny and cute. There are: 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, 1 euro, and 2 euro. Glad I don't have to teach first graders to distinguish from among all of those types of coins!

Gonna go make some dinner now. We're having sausage and vegetables and maybe some potato wedges tonight. Yum.

Connemara

Yesterday I visited another popular destination in County Galway: Connemara. I was not really sure what the attraction was to Connemara, not having heard much about it, but the tour buses go there so I decided it couldn't be too bad a place. We tried another tour company this time. O'Neachtain Tours got our business but I'm not sure I would take their tours again. The guide was not as good as the one from Healy Tours.

The Connemara tours have more photo stops along the way to the main destination. At our first stop, we saw a few houses with thatched roofs.


The cozy Irishness of this house is marred slightly by the telephone lines, in my opinion, but I suppose we shouldn't deny the Irish modern comforts to keep them picturesque.


Molly and I hung back from the group when they went back to the bus to get good pictures of ourselves in front of the Irish cottages. As a result (and because I stopped to take pictures for my flower post) we had to sprint to catch the bus. In all likelihood they would not have left without us, but we were not taking chances.


We drove through bog land. This picture (taken from the bus) shows what is called "blanket bog" because it covers the land like a blanket. There is also a bottomless lake which I did not manage to get a photo of.


At our next stop, our tour guide pointed out this leprechaun house, which is about the size of a dog house. We looked for gold hidden in the grass but we didn't see any.


Across the street from the leprechaun house was a little waterfall and we all took turns taking each other's pictures in front of it. There was no gold here, either.

Kylemore Abbey was our main destination for the day. We spent a total of two hours there and that included lunchtime. The abbey was once a castle built by a surgeon from Manchester. He lived there with his wife who fell in love with the Connemara region. When she died young, he could no longer bear to live in the castle he had built for her so he sold it. It changed hands many times before finally becoming the Benedictine abbey it is today.


The view of the abbey from across the water is very impressive. As the bus got closer, we could see it better and better. It is set at the bottom of a mountain and about three quarters of the way up the mountain is a white statue of Jesus. I could not get a good picture of the statue because I was too far away, but it's really cool to see.

The inside of the abbey is a sort of museum where things are set up as though people still live there. The sisters do live in the building but not the part where people walk through all the time.


There was a very old piano so I had my picture taken beside it. I put my backpack down to take the picture and when I bent down to pick it up again I almost knocked the chair and the partition over. It would have been a very unfortunate circumstance if I had dismantled the entire drawing room with my tourist backpack.


At the end of the short tour through the abbey, I lit a candle and put my name in the guest book. I was an idiot and spelled my own name wrong, but not as much of an idiot as the twenty people before me who wrote the wrong date on the paper.


We also visited an old Gothic church on the grounds of the abbey. It was very small but very pretty and built with different shades Connemara marble running through it.

On our way to eat lunch, we were fooling around and generally acting like Americans on vacation and we took really corny pictures of ourselves on this big flat rock. There are mountains in the distance and the cloud cover was pretty neat. We had a different weather day than we had for the Cliffs, but not necessarily bad. We didn't see the sun all day, but it didn't rain either. I like the clouds sometimes.


We met these older tourists because they offered to take a group picture of us. Most of them are from Oklahoma, but a few are from Utah and they were so awesome. When we were posing for our picture, they kept saying how they wanted us to marry their sons and how beautiful we all were. They all had the midwestern accent and it was so funny. We took their picture, too, of course, and we all sang a few rounds of "Oklahoma," "Goin' to the Chapel," and even "Amazing Grace." These are my new favorite tourists.


One of our last photo stops after Kylemore was at a place where we could see the mountains really well. I absolutely love mountains (one of the reasons I love West Virginia) so this was really cool.


And here is me with the mountains. There was also a very big rock to climb on during this stop and that was fun. I have many more pictures from Connemara, but these are the best. Although I enjoyed my trip to the Cliffs of Moher more than the one to Connemara, it was still a great day. It's hard not to have a fun time in Ireland.

A Survey of Flora in Connemara

On our bus tour to Connemara yesterday, we made many photo stops before and after spending time at our main destination. At each photo stop we had ten minutes to take pictures of everything we found interesting. I noticed a lot of cool flowers so I decided to take pictures of them for all you botanists at home.
Yellow buttercups were growing in with some pretty ugly weeds but I liked the way they looked up against the stone wall.


These are some more berries that were growing along the path (well not so much a path as a main road, but it would be considered a path in the states) like at the Burren. I wasn't sure what they were or if they were really blackberries so I didn't eat them but I would have liked to.


I don't know what kind of flowers these are but they are a very pretty blue color. They were growing on a big bush outside someone's house. Taking pictures of them almost caused me to miss the bus.


This, in fact, is not a flower. It is actually sheep poop but it is like a flower in that it is on the ground and it is everywhere in Connemara.


These flowers were everywhere at our main stop of the day, which was Kylemore Abby. They look like little Chinese lanterns and are very bright shades of pink and purple.

These were also at Kylmore Abbey. There were big bunches of them growing outside the gates to the pathway. They didn't look very well cared for, though, because there were a lot of dead/dying flowers among the living ones.

I hope you have enjoyed this look into the plant life of Connemara, County Galway.

Internet woes (again)

I have been trying for a while to get pictures uploaded from my trip to Connemara today, but everyone must be on the connection. Every time I try to get pictures, Firefox just closes. So, I didn't forget about posting, I just can't yet. I will try again after dinner and after going out if we don't get back too late.

But, while I'm here, I'll fill you in on another trip: Belfast and Scotland next weekend! I'll be spending Thursday and Friday night in Belfast, taking a ferry to Scotland early Saturday morning, and spending all of Saturday day and night in Scotland. We'll fly back to Shannon airport on Sunday evening. It's a relief to fly into Shannon instead of Dublin because it's a much shorter bus ride back to Galway from Shannon than Dublin. So, that's official because I've booked flights, ferries, and hostels.

Hopefully this will not be my only post for the day. I'll try to get a stronger connection after dinner.

A Taste of Irish Music

In every single place I have visited in Ireland, there has always been street performers. In Galway, there are singers, guitar players, harp players, Native American musicians, Bible readers, magicians, comedy teams, violin players, the list goes on and on. I also saw quite a few performers in Dublin during my short stay there. The path surrounding the Cliffs of Moher was also lined with musicians playing for money. I took some video of this flutist because he was quite good and the music sounded very Irish.

I apologize for the shaking of the camera. It's very difficult for me to hold it steady and walk and zoom. I really only meant for this to be an audio treat, so turn up the volume and close your eyes if you get seasick.



Also, please let me know if the video does not play. It is currently working for me, but I don't know much about video-uploading dynamics, so I'm not sure how well this will work. It's merely an experiment.

"You'd see nicer eyes on a goat"

Tonight, I saw a play at Town Hall Theatre. The play was The Cripple of Inishmaan and we had tickets through NUIG. The characters were colorful Irish people and it was very funny at times. The banter was reminiscent of Waking Ned Devine so I loved that part of it. It was a little sad at some parts too. The story takes place on one of the Aran Islands (Inishmaan). The villagers get news that a movie director from America has come to the biggest of the Aran Islands (Inishmore) to cast a new movie. Many people want to travel to Inishmore to land a part or at least get to meet the American director. Among them is the crippled boy, Billy, who lives with his "fake aunties." Much of the darkish humor comes from people making cracks at Billy which is both funny and heartbreaking at the same time. The title of this post is a line said about Billy by one of his fake aunties. It's mean, but not mean spirited. Everybody likes Billy even if they make fun of him.

There are lots of Irish antics, including many broken eggs, references to the town slut, and lots and lots of whiskey drinking. While it was very funny and charming, it was also quite disturbing at parts and overall not what I was expecting. It was good though and I recommend reading it, although I think it is much different to see on stage (as with anything).

Before the play started, we had a chance to go to a pre-show talk about The Cripple of Inishmaan and the playwright. It was informative, but for me it gave a bit too much of the play away. We had about an hour to kill between the talk and the beginning of the play, so Molly and I explored a little bit around the theatre. We found a new Euro 2 store (the dollar store of Ireland!) and got some ice cream at the Supermac's (the Irish McDonalds, although there is still a McDonalds in town).


Euro 2 has a lot to offer in the candy department. 5 candy bars for 2 euro?! Sign me up.


Ah, Supermac's. I have yet to try anything but the ice cream, but I hear the fries are a real treat. They make them with all sorts of sauce on them, flavors include taco and garlic. I think a trip to Supermac's for lunch is in my near future.


Here I am taking a picture of myself outside the Town Hall Theatre. I was very excited because I love plays and I love Ireland, so it stands to reason that I would love a play about Ireland.

Soc Hop

Today was the Soc Fair at NUIG. Soc is short for society. Societies at NUI are what we would call clubs at SJU. The clubs here are sports clubs, so I guess their way makes a little more sense. Anyway, as it turns out, the Soc Fair is basically a room full of free stuff. Most of you probably know that I will put my name on almost any list for free stuff. Two days ago, in fact, I joined the Literary and Debate society for a bag of goodies which, except for a box of cereal and a pen, turned out to be pretty lame. Here is a tally of societies I joined today and what they gave me in return:

Young Greens Society: I was not aware this was a political organization. I thought it was just a way to spread the news about saving the Earth, but it turns out they also try to convert people to the Green Party. They gave me a postcard with a polar bear on it, some vegetarian recipes to try, lots of paperwork on 100% recycled paper, and an apple. I might actually go to a few of their meetings.

Choral Society: I legitimately wanted to join this. Rehearsals are Tuesdays from 6-8 and it sounds pretty cool. I got a cookie, but I guess it wasn't really free because I had to pay 2 euros in dues.

Law Society: For law students. Everyone wanted to join this though because they were giving away those drawstring backpacks full of unknown treasures. For writing my name down, I got my bag which contained a newspaper, a student planner in poster form which is hanging on my wall now, a mechanical pencil, and a device designed to keep one's razor in place while one travels. Apparently there was a market for that. I also got a Mars bar which was delicious.

Polish Society: Another one I was actually interested in. Unfortunately most of the members of the society are actually Polish, as in they live in Poland. They invited me to their first meeting which, in true Irish fashion, is at a bar this Friday night. I might go because they gave me a Polish chocolate and it was tasty.

North American Students: I don't know why I joined this one. There was nothing free and it actually cost me money because it was another 2 euro deal. They host sporting events to watch though and there's a rugby game next weekend. I could maybe go for that.

SUAS: I couldn't understand everything the girl was saying, but I think it has something to do with teaching underprivileged children. There is an after school homework program I am interested in doing. Also, I got free pamphlets and a pen.

Nothing Specific Society: A soc that prides itself on not really doing anything. I only got a lame sticker but I expect the meetings to be pretty fun and everybody else was signing up, so...

International Student Society: I was already a member of this and it is the best soc on campus. Tonight they are hosting their 3rd event of the year which is very impressive. They have given me nothing free as of yet, but they did take me on my first pub crawl.

I realize that I have been neglecting the photo element of my blog, but really, there has been nothing interesting of which to take pictures. So, I leave you with this picture of a beautiful cow. She and her friends were grazing in a field by the Cliffs of Moher. There are cattle and sheep all over the Irish countryside and on our way home from the Cliffs, we even saw some llamas. I love llamas, but I couldn't get a picture from the bus window. So, I guess I'll have to settle for this picture of Old Bess. I figured maybe someone would like to make it their wallpaper or something. Enjoy!

Don't drink the water

Today we had another delicious "family dinner" with the girls from upstairs. We had homemade macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, and steamed veggies. It was, in my opinion, our best yet. We've decided that next week is going to be taco night...I'm already excited. After dinner, we were planning to watch the season 4 finale of Grey's Anatomy at 9:00 only to find out that it was not on until 10:00. So, we sat around and watched Vault Classic, a music video channel that usually has hits from the 1990's (we love it). At 10:00 we successfully watched Grey's Anatomy and a good time was had by all.

After Grey's, the news came on and the lead story was that the water in Galway is contaminated. Fantastic. Apparently, parts of the city are getting water that is full of lead and it cannot be boiled away. Even more fantastic. We're supposed to have been contacted if our supply is among those to be worried about, but our landlord is so strange that it seems unlikely he would inform us. My Villanova roommate is calling as I type. Even if our area is not affected, I still intend to drink only bottled water and juice for the next few days.

Update: I personally spoke to Oliver. He told me that there is nothing to worry about, that it is only the old parts of the city that are affected, and that if anything should come up I will be the first to know. I may or may not have woken him up to bother him about this, so it's a good thing he does not actually know who I am. (Though I still would like to be at the top of the list to notify when anything goes wrong.)

I only have one class tomorrow but it's a drag: Philosophy of Art and Literature. Ugh, it's the only class I really don't like. Better get to bed, though, it's at 9:00 which is early in Ireland. The city doesn't get moving until 10:00 or 11:00.

Planning Trips

I had my first Jane Austen class this morning and I have to say that sitting in that line for 5 hours on Wednesday was completely worth it. The class session this morning was the best I've had so far at NUIG. There are only 12 students in my class and 9 of them are Irish. We spent most of the two hours getting to know each other and everybody is so interesting. The Irish students have all traveled to exotic places and have had adventures like sky-diving and rock climbing and working in Romanian orphanages. The classwork itself seems to be pretty manageable as well. Jane Austen might just overtake Biogeography as my favorite class.

I'm in my friends' apartment now trying to plan out our trips to various destinations in Europe. Our Internet is acting up again so it's not going so well, but we're working on Prague at the moment. Last week we booked Paris and this week is Prague but we were much faster on Paris. I'm going to sign off this to lessen the load on the Internet and maybe it will go faster for those who are being productive.

You can't always get what you want

Sometimes studying abroad is not all it's cracked up to be. In fact, many of the challenges I face daily fall under the umbrella of what's known as "roughing it." For example, today the Internet in my apartment has been maddeningly slow. No matter how I tried, I could not do anything: no Facebook, no blogging, no e-mails, no Skype. I was in the middle of a Skype chat with my mom and the Internet kicked me off and would not let me back on for HOURS. I'll say that again: HOURS with no Internet. Makes you shudder, doesn't it?

In a fury, I stormed out of the building and walked aimlessly around the streets of Galway until I finally ended up at the edge of the River Corrib. I stood there with a dramatic, "good-bye cruel world" attitude for a while. And then, I realized that I was on the edge of the River Corrib and decided that maybe having no Internet (for HOURS) was not the worst thing that could happen to a person. And they all lived happily ever after.

A Brilliant Day for Touring

Today I woke up with the sun streaming in past the curtains and I knew it was going to be a great day for the Cliffs of Moher. Molly and I met up with Annie in the lobby and we headed down Merchants Road to the tour buses. We were looking for Galway Bus Tours but instead we were stopped by a guy from Healy Tours and were roped in to booking that bus. We opted to do the walking tour of the Burren as well as the Cliffs. Those of us walking were dropped off at an Irish farm on the Burren and were led on a tour by a man who has lived on the farm his whole life.

John Connolly (the tour guide and resident on the property) invited us to partake of the blackberries that grew along the edges of the path. We walked a long way up the hill (mountain to me) taking breaks along the way. John does this every day so he was fine giving a tour and hiking at the same time, but I was exhausted every time we stopped.

The view from the top of the hill is worth it, though. Everything is green, green, green. John's family owns a lot of cattle and we could hear them lowing wherever we were. (They were confused because the family recently took their calves away...how sad.) About halfway up the hill/mountain, the grass disappears and it becomes the porous, limestone rock that the Burren is known for. It is not hard to climb on the rocks, but the heather and other flora that grow there can be deceptive. It looks like solid ground, when really one could be headed for a hole.


Annie, Molly, and I were very excited to be at the Burren. As you can see behind us, the whole mountaintop is covered with grey stone. Little flowers and things can grow through the cracks, though. The limestone is porous and full of calcium. The tufts of grass that are able to grow through the cracks are rich in calcium from the ground so farmers take their cattle to graze there. Cows that have eaten that grass (apparently) produce more milk and that milk is higher in calcium.

Fun fact: John's family does not milk the cows. Their calves drink the milk while they are young and then the calves are sold.


At the end of the tour, John showed us a really cool flat rock that is like a wide sliding board. One simply sits on a rock and pushes off and then woosh! Down it goes. John said he knows that his great grandfather used to play this game as a boy and it was probably going on before then too. It was a lot of fun, even if I did slam into a dirt pile at the bottom.


The hills in the background of the Burren and the greenery provide a good backdrop and it really makes it hard to take a bad picture. I took almost 200 pictures today. After the tour we were invited back to the little shop where John's mother had made apple pies and we could buy a slice. I only had a coffee since I'm not into apple pie, but it looked very good.


After the tour bus picked us up again, we drove to our next picture spot. I do not remember what this is called, but it is a little like Stonehenge. It's one of the most visited sites in Ireland so we could only stay ten minutes to regulate the tourist flow. After that, it was on to the Cliffs!


We only had an hour at the cliffs (I could have spent more time there) but we definitely made the most of it. First we walked on the "safe side" which was not really the cliffs. It had a railing and allowed us to take pictures of the Cliffs of Moher without actually being on them. It offered a great view and was decidedly the much safer way to go.

Fun fact: Recognize those cliffs? The Cliffs of Moher are the Cliffs of Insanity of Princess Bride fame. If I had seen the Dread Pirate Roberts scaling the side, I would have died of delight, but alas, I did not. Ready to continue with the post? As you wish. (Do you want to go watch the movie now? I do.)


Before I even set foot on the Cliffs of Moher, my mother knew this sign existed and warned me to stay VERY VERY far from the edge if I decided to ignore this warning. I'm here to tell you that I was completely careful and obviously I am alive, and yes, I did venture beyond the sign. There were very daring people sitting far too close to the edge for even my taste, but I did not get that close. We did take a lot of pictures of all of us and it may look like I am hanging ten over the side, but I promise I did nothing of the sort.


The sun was so wonderful today. We really could not have had better weather. It did not rain one drop the whole day and I was very pleased about that. Above, you can see me at my touristy best, backpack and all. This was my first venture past the sign and I was a little too freaked out to take the time to remove my backpack. I did lighten up eventually, but one can never be too careful.

And here I am again in the sunshine and the wind. The waves are crashing against the Cliffs and everything is right with the world. To my knowledge, no one fell off the edge today, so the Cliffs of Moher had a very successful Saturday. Word.

Dinner in Galway

Tonight we decided to go out to dinner for the first time in Galway. We went to a place called Finnegan's which offered good traditional Irish food and some other favorites, such as pizza. It was a very non-touristy atmosphere. There were locals there who knew the waitresses and it was very small. The food was pretty good and very cheap. I got Traditional Irish Stew. I would not go so far as to say it was a great meal, but I enjoyed the stew itself. The mashed potatoes left a lot to be desired and the cabbage was tasteless. The definite benefit, though, was getting a ton of food for 9.90 euros. Each entree came with mashed potatoes, baby potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and turnips.

We could have gotten dessert at Finnegan's too (the Bailey's Irish Cheesecake sounded tempting) but we were so stuffed we opted to walk around a little bit before getting dessert. We ended up at Zatsuma for "lovely crepes." They have a wide variety there: dinner crepes, dessert crepes, dessert waffles, hot drinks, etc. I got a Melted Marshmallow crepe which had marshmallow, hot fudge, M'n'Ms, and ice cream. It was very tasty.


Zatsuma claims to have lovely crepes. They do.

After dinner we went back to Niland House and watched Grease. It was definitely a very low-key night but it was good to stay in. Tomorrow if the weather is nice I'm going to take a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher. It's going to take up most of the day, so I need to be rested! Have a lovely day.

Pub Crawl

Last night the International Student Society hosted a pub crawl through Galway. I had a lot of fun. I was in Group 2 with people I had never met before. I made a few new friends including an Elementary Ed major from TCNJ and a girl from Germany who's in Ireland for the year. We had 5 pubs on our agenda, four of which I had never been to before. The night began early (in Irish terms) so the first pub was kind of dead. We all sat around a few tables talking and getting to know each other. The beer was cheap because the pubs had specials on for students so we were all pretty psyched about that.


This is part of our group waiting between our third and fourth pubs. We started out with a very large group but lost half of them at The Kings Head, our second stop of the night. With a smaller group it was a lot easier to talk to people and keep track of everyone as we walked around town.

We carried an egg around the whole night and had to get the bartender from each bar we visited to sign it. If the egg was still intact by the end of the night, we would get a prize. I was in charge of the egg for most of the night because my purse was deemed a very safe place for it. At our last stop, we had all our signatures and our egg was still whole, so that was good. I never heard anything about a prize, but I did leave the last pub pretty early because it was too crowded to move. That final stop though, was really cool. It was a basement bar and club called De Burgos and I bet it is a lot of fun when it is not packed with people.

Contrary to popular belief...

...I do actually attend class in Ireland. In fact, I'm so intense about school that I camped out at 4:00 this morning to register for a class. I woke up at 3:30 with my alarm and immediately wanted to go back to sleep. The thought of being shut out of my first choice English seminar, though, was enough to make me drag myself out of my warm bed and greet the pre-dawn air. Molly, Kirsten, and I were the only three from Niland House to make the commitment so early.


Here we are waiting outside the quadrangle. We were numbers 8, 9, and 10 in line which pretty much guaranteed us our first choice. The first few hours consisted of me shivering and complaining and listening to the Sweeney Todd soundtrack on loop until my mp3 player died.

By 5:00, there were at least thirty people in line. The smarter ones had worn hats, gloves, and scarves or brought blankets and snacks. I amused myself for about two minutes taking some nighttime pictures, very few of which actually turned out.


This is the line of people at around 5:00. We started a list with the exact order of everybody so that no one could cut the line. The list ended up getting suspiciously lost but we made another one because there was NO WAY we weren't going to be among the first in that building.

In the end, everything worked out. Everyone I knew who was there before sunrise got the classes they wanted. By registration time (9:00) there were over two hundred students waiting and I know most of them at the end did not get their classes. I heard from my roommate that the English department was inventing new courses on the spot because they ran out of room in the others. It was a very different registration experience than those we have at St. Joe's. I am so glad I got the seminar I was hoping for. (For all who are interested, it is a study of Jane Austen and her works.)
The final image for today is of the quadrangle building before dawn. There's a picture of this same building in daylight in one of my earliest posts. I thought it would be interesting to see a nighttime picture of it.

Dublin Part 5: The Last Night and Day

We came back to the Brewery Hostel to rest for a while before going out. We wanted to eat at a place with traditional Irish food and we found one! The restaurant/pub is called the Brazen Head and allegedly it is the oldest pub in Ireland.

We got a little lost on the way and had to consult our map in the middle of the sidewalk. In truth, we did this with 100% of the locations we wanted to see. The map was in our hands more than it was in our backpacks, but it was a good experience. The picture is Kirsten being our navigator and Molly being our map stand.

This is a blurry shot of the sign outside the Brazen Head. They were not lying about the traditional Irish music. A group a few tables over from us started a sing-a-long with everyone in the bar. People were swaying side to side in a big group singing their Irish songs and playing whatever instruments they had. It was really cool and very similar to things I've seen at the pubs here in Galway.

This is our whole group at the Brazen Head. From left to right it's, Heather, Kirsten, Molly, Annie, Laura, and me. The food was very good. I got traditional fish and chips which were spot on. Other options on the menu were traditional Irish stew (featuring lamb), a stew featuring mushrooms and Guinness, and mussels in cream sauce. It all sounded so good it was hard to choose.

On Sunday we went to an 11:15 service at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The service was really great, especially the singing. There was a great choir of all boys and men. I thought the little boys' voices were women's at first, but it was an all male choir. The church is Anglican so there were some traditions we did not know but it was a good time anyway. The celebrant thanked the Flower Guild for decorating the altar. I would love to have a Flower Guild.

After church we went back to downtown Dublin to finally purchase my dome umbrella and I was successful. Now if only I could find rain boots... We made it just in time for our bus and we all slept on and off the four hours back to Galway. Even though it was raining as we pulled in to the station, I was glad to be back in the apartment. It was a great weekend, but I know I like Galway better than Dublin. We're going to try to take another trip somewhere else soon. I'll keep updating this as long as I have interesting things to say.

Dublin Part 4: Trinity College

We walked from St. Patrick's Cathedral to Trinity College, passing through downtown Dublin. There is lots of shopping there and many, many people. There are also people who stand in costumes and act like statues. They move when you least expect them to and startle tourists. It is very strange, and reminds me of something I saw at Disney World, but it's still cool. We met up with the SJU boys at Trinity and stood for a little while taking pictures of all the buildings.

The buildings on Trinity College campus are huge. They all look so old and majestic. There was a wedding going on in one of the buildings so everybody was standing around taking pictures. I saw a man in a kilt.

This is me standing under an arch at Trinity. The arch is extremely tall so I look tiny. The whole thing is not even pictured because it's so big. I am holding a Guinness bag full of goodies from the Guinness Factory gift shop.

Here is the rest of that arch I was standing under. There is a cross on top with some statues and a lot of designs in the stone.


The sky looks dark and threatening, but it did not rain the whole day! This is another building on the campus. There are also a lot of trees and green grass. It's a really beautiful place.

We went in to see the Book of Kells. There are signs everywhere saying that no one is allowed to take pictures so you'll have to come to Dublin yourself to see the Book of Kells. The Book is really cool and I'm glad I got to see it, but even better than that was the Long Room. The Long Room is just after the Book of Kells and it is a fantastic old library. The walls are lined with books from the ground to the ceiling. There are fancy ladders where one can imagine Trinity College's famous graduates scaling the towers of books. There are busts of all sorts of people. We were hardly allowed to touch anything, almost all of it is closed off. Again, this was a no picture zone.

Bonus! On our way back to the Brewery Hostel we detoured in to see Dublin Castle. The tours were finished running for the day but we got to take pictures of the outside. Like everything else, it is so pretty.


The outside of Dublin Castle. I like that rounded tower, I think it looks really cool.

Dublin Part 3: Cathedrals

After touring the Guinness Factory, we had wraps at an O'Briens sandwich place. The food was very good (I had a spicy beef and cheddar wrap) and fairly cheap. The sandwiches here usually come with "Tayto" brand potato chips which are cheese and onion flavored. It sounds weird, but it's tasty. We decided to visit the cathedrals we had passed on Friday night on the way to the pub. They were very neat.


Our first stop was Christ Church Cathedral. It is beautiful from the outside but it is so big it's hard to get a good photo of it without things being in the way. It has a lovely courtyard where people can sit and take touristy pictures and I suppose eat a picnic if they wanted. We did not go in as there was a fee and we felt our euros were better spent elsewhere.


I think that was a good decision because I like St. Patrick's Cathedral a little more than Christ Church. It is only a short distance from CC, maybe a couple of blocks. There is a gorgeous green park in the back of the cathedral, complete with fountain and frolicking children.There is a small playground off to one side with swings and a sliding board. I have no proof of this, but it strikes me as a spot for both locals and tourists and was a nice little oasis in an otherwise crowded city.

The park is in place to commemorate the place where St. Patrick baptized a lot of Irish people many centuries ago. Very old, very cool.

The outside of St. Patrick is similar to the outside of Christ Church, but there is more greenery around it. It's easier to view the whole thing at once, too.



This is a view of almost all of St. Patrick's from the back. If you look to the top right corner, you'll see some scaffolding. That is because there is major construction happening on the right tower of the cathedral. It's unfortunate because, again, it made it hard for me to take a nice photo.

I'll end this post with an inside look at St. Patrick's. A few of us decided to fork over the 4.20 euro to get inside and I think it was worth it. I'm sure you could find a better lit picture than this on a postcard of this cathedral but I do not think any picture could capture its magnificence. It is truly amazing on the inside, complete with statues and ornate carvings and paintings. I really enjoyed this part of our Dublin experience.

Come back tomorrow for part 4!