Dublin, Take 2

This past weekend I went on adventure with Steph, another visiting friend, to Dublin. Since I didn't get to see many of the famous sights during my orientation there, we set out to see as many as we could in the two days we were there.

Our bus arrived Friday evening, and after a small bit of wandering and a one minute taxi ride (that we didn't get charged for since it was so short), we found our hostel and our friend Cullan (also from Tufts). Dinner consisted of fish and chips eaten out of a paper bag as we walked around the Temple Bar area and through a bit of Trinity College. It was pretty amazing, but no pictures were taken since we were all pretty occupied with the deliciousness of the food.

On Saturday Steph and I got up early to go see the Book of Kells. We got there right on time and spent almost two hours going through the exhibits, looking at the actual book, and staring up in awe at the ceiling of the Long Room, part of one of Trinity's oldest libraries.

Also worth noting: I may or may not have purchased a Book of Kells coloring/colouring book. All I can say is that my procrastination sessions next semester will probably produce some pretty cool pictures.

We then went back to the hostel to meet Cullan, who brought us some pretty amazing baked good for breakfast:

It was a beautiful day - I don't know how I keep getting so lucky with the weather here - and we walked through the city and across the river to St. Michin's Church. And, of course, took a few pictures along the way...

Troll crossing the river:

The General Post Office, where a group of rebels barricaded themselves during the 1916 Easter Rising:

You can still see the bullet marks in the columns in some places.

St. Michin's Church is your run of the mill Episcopal church, but underneath it is a different story. It houses several crypts, two of which are open to the public. You have to climb down steep stone steps (like the entrance to a cellar, only older) to enter. Little rooms on either side of the main passage are filled, sometimes stuffed, with dusty coffins. In one room at the very back of one of the chambers, four coffins are opened so that you can see what's inside. MUMMIES! The conditions of the crypt were just right for preserving the bodies, which are all several hundred years old. The oldest, tucked all the way in the back, is a 900 year old Crusader, who had to be "adjusted" to fit into his coffin (his feet were cut off). Legend has it that shaking the hand of the Crusader brings good luck, so with our guide's urging, we all crouched and climbed into the back of the little room to rub his finger. It was a strange experience, but undeniably very cool. I did Purell my hands before lunch though.

Steph really wanted to see the Guinness Storehouse, and since I really enjoy the view from the Gravity Bar, we headed up to St. James' Gate.

We stopped at the Jameson Distillery for a photo along the way:

I tried the Guinness again in the tasting section of the tour, and again I ended up getting a Sprite at the Gravity Bar. Troll, however, enjoyed his pint:

Background info for the following story: there were men in kilts all over Dublin from the minute we stepped off the bus on Friday. Having been in this country for two months and never seeing a single kilt (which makes sense, since kilts are more associated with Scotland), I was pretty curious as to what may be behind the hordes of tartan. Emboldened by the three mouthfuls of Guinness I had tasted earlier (just kidding!), I asked two kilt-clad men in the Gravity Bar. It turns out that they were showing their support for Scotland, who were playing Ireland in the final match of the Six Nations Rugby championship that evening, which I knew but never thought to associate with the kilts.

We met one of Steph's friends who is studying at Trinity for the semester and went to a pub to watch the last bit of the rugby match. While the only way Ireland could win the entire championship was to thoroughly thrash Scotland with a large margin of points AND have England beat Wales (a very unlikely combination of events), everyone was still hoping for an Irish victory. It looked like it might happen, but we were disappointed by a lucky Scottish penalty kick in the last few minutes of the match. We consoled ourselves with delicious Lebanese food for dinner.

Sunday morning we were again met with absolutely beautiful weather, which perfectly coincided with our plans to explore some of Dublin's parks.

Fusiliers Arch, the main entrance to St. Stephen's Green:

The two biggest swans I have ever seen in my life:

Troll enjoying the flowers:

Even better than St. Stephen's Green were the Iveagh Gardens, a much smaller park only blocks away from the Green. The walls reminded me of the Secret Garden:

Exploring one of the many tree-covered paths:

A hedgemaze leading to a sundial in the center (and yes, we walked through the entire maze):

Though it took a minute or two, we did manage to confirm that the sundial did, in fact, display the proper time:

If the first gate didn't remind you of the Secret Garden, then this one should:

We spent some time walking around Grafton Street, the middle of Dublin's main shopping district. We found some beautiful jewelry at one of the carts on the street and I pulled off some impressive bargaining to get us a very good deal of some rings (well, to be honest, the seller agreed to the first price I offered).

There's nothing like a giant bubble to brighten your day:

After eating the best potato and leek soup I've had so far (and I've had my fair share of it here), Steph caught a bus to get to the airport, and I high-tailed it to the bus station to get my bus back to Limerick. While it was disappointing to be stuck on a bus on what was the warmest day since I arrived here in Ireland, the lambs and calves dotting the countryside made the view worthwhile.

And now I must go finish an essay due Thursday so that I can take part in tonight's RAG week festivities. RAG stands for Raise and Give and, from what I can gather, seems to be field day events, Spring Fling, and Fall Ball/Winter Bash all rolled into one and stretched out over an entire week. Should be quite the time!

More Weekend Adventures

Two posts in one day?! It must be due to the 'Gift of the Gab' that I received this weekend after kissing the Blarney Stone...Yes, I actually laid on my back, slid over the edge of a castle while holding onto a set of metal bars, and kissed a stone that thousands of people kissed before me, going against every germophobe instinct I have.

Laura (my future housemate), who is studying in Germany for the year, came to visit for a weekend during her break between semesters. We walked all around Limerick, toured St. Mary's Cathedral (which was established in 1168 - talk about old!), and discovered a lovely little park.

The Cathedral is the oldest building in Limerick:

It felt a little weird to take pictures in a functioning church, but we were the only ones in there...

These are really ornately carved misericords, which were provided for choir members to lean against during services since no one was allowed to sit:

King John's (of Robin Hood fame) castle:

Laura and I didn't go in, but here are some pictures from when I toured it myself several weeks ago:

The view from the ramparts was amazing; you had both city skyline and meandering river at the same time:

There were a lot of interactive exhibits inside the museum attached to the castle. The sign says 'Children Only Danger!' so naturally I went in and was promptly rewarded by being scared out of my wits by a recording of a cackling hag.

So back to the present. Or rather, the more recent past. On Saturday, Laura and I went to Blarney, which is right outside of Cork. We expected to spend a few hours at the castle and then a few hours walking around Cork, but were pleasantly surprised by how much there was to do at Blarney. It was a lot of fun to explore the castle itself, but it's also surrounded by amazingly well-kept grounds with extensive nature trails that kept us occupied for the entire afternoon.

The Blarney Stone is located all the way up on the roof of the castle (Do castles have roofs? What's it called if they don't?). Laura has a picture of me kissing the stone, which I'll post at some point.

The crazy winding staircases we had to climb to get to the top:

I wish it was possible to take a little waterfall back to the US with me. They're consistently my favorite discoveries here:

It's said that if you walk up and down the wishing steps with your eyes closed and think of nothing but your wish the entire time, the wish will come true within the year. Laura and I both did it - it wasn't easy! I'll let you know if it works or not this time next year...

There were so many old, majestic trees like this one:

The Witch's Stone was covered in little offerings, mostly coins from all over the world. Laura decided to expand her coin collection by trading some euro coins for some of the more exotic ones that were there.

There were stands of crocuses (croci?) and daffodils all over the place. I had a lot of fun using the macro setting on my camera to take some extreme close-ups:

They even had horses! And a really fun tire swing (or tyre swing, if you want to use the Irish/European spelling), but I forgot to take a picture of it. I also forgot to bring Troll along...

We caught the bus back to Limerick just in time to see the fireworks that were part of the St. Patrick's Day Festival. Afterwards, we caught up with one of my friends and the American friends she has visiting her this week and went to a very traditional pub in the city. A perfect end to a great day!

I have the day off tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day, so I'm going to try to see the parade in the city with one of my friends, and then I have to write some more essays - eeek! At least they won't be as bad as the one I handed in yesterday: Social Inclusion in Ireland: A New Beginning for Local Government. Two months ago I had never heard of the term social inclusion and I had no idea what the local government system was in Ireland. I now know a tiny bit more, but more importantly, I memorized the 32 counties of Ireland while searching for distractions instead of writing (thanks, Sporcle!).

Test yourself!

Field Trip Time!

I started this post weeks ago and never actually finished it, so I'll attempt to now!

Being an exchange student is a funny balance: on one hand, we've traveled a few thousand miles to a new place on our own and are expected to complete the workload of a full-time Irish student, but on the other, we have several different groups keeping tabs on us to make sure no one falls through the cracks (literally and metaphorically). This was very apparent last Saturday when I went on a day trip with the International Students Office. They had a list of people on the trip and would count to make sure the same number of people always got on the bus, but other than that we were on our own. This made for a really entertaining afternoon when our bus broke down and we had to re-create where we were sitting so that they could re-count us (apparently they had been counting wrong the entire day...).

The trip was called 'Into the West,' so we saw three of the major sights on the western coast of Ireland: The Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, and the Aillwee Caves. They were all really beautiful, and the caves were really interesting to walk through (benefit of being on the short side: I only had to duck once, but many of the people on my tour were bent over for most of the walk).

Of course Troll made the journey as well:

The lighting made it a bit difficult to get good pictures, but rest assured the views are breathtaking:

I'm always entertained by the signs:

Erin and I in front of the watch tower on top of the cliffs (the sun was so bright that we were essentially blind when this was taken):

Troll at the Burren:

The Burren is essentially a wide open field full of rocks. In theory, it should be pretty boring, but it has a strange sort of beauty to it and is just really interesting to explore. Once everything blooms and it's filled with flowers I'm sure it's probably quite a sight.

We had a lot of fun playing with shadows (from left: Michelle, Laura, me, and Katrina...I think):

I could have spent way more than the 30 minutes or so they gave us here:

This area was definitely not suitable for cliff-jumping:

It's impossible to get a decent picture in a pitch dark cave, but here's proof that I was there (I'm not even sure of the proper orientation of this photo...):

We randomly stopped at an ancient burial ground in the Burren on the way home:

Not bad for a single day's traveling!