more adventures around dublin

This entire week the Jameson Film Festival has been going on all over Dublin and it has been amazing. On Monday I went to a viewing at the cineworld off O'Connell Street in North Dublin. Although the movie wasn't Irish I still really enjoyed seeing it at an International Film Festival. I saw Charlie Bartlet and would seriously recommend it to anyone! I thought it was such a great movie! Then the next night I was lucky enough to miss my Ireland and the EU 2.5 hour lecture to see the Irish Shorts for my film class. Our teacher, Ashley, as able to get us free tickets to the showing of 6 short films. All the films were made by and acted by Irish people and took place in various Irish locations. 1 of the films was in Irish and surprisingly I was able to catch a few phrases! I really liked most of the movies and it was a really great experience. The Irish Shorts were viewed at the IFI (Irish Film Institute) which was built by U2 for the showing of Irish Film in Dublin. The building was really cool and it's located near the Temple Bar area. After the Irish Shorts were done I went to the Temple Bar to attempt to listen to some trad music. I learned a good lesson in this attempt: that Temple Bar is NOT the place to see good trad music. I'm sure all my professors could have warned me of this, but I guess we all had to learn firsthand. Temple Bar basically has some "trad" musicians who play guitar and don't play real Irish music at all. We stayed for about an hour and then realized it wasn't even worth it.

On Wednesday my thoughts on Temple Bar music were affirmed when a mother and daughter came in to present traditional music. The daughter played fiddle and the mother played every form of guitar/mandolin I've ever seen. They spent about 2 hours bringing us through the history of Irish music playing jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, mazerkas, ect. I can't believe how amazing they were, because they would just improvise everything without music. They actually suggested a great pub where they do sessions on monday in North Dublin. I think I'm going to try and hit that pub up soon, because I really want to see some good trad music in Dublin!

So last week I found out that I don't have classes this week. Unfortunately it was too late for me to plan a fantastic vacation to any location so I decided to just take day trips around Dublin on the DART and hit up some more sights in Dublin, because amazingly I still have a lot to see. On friday I hit off the weekend in style with some intense badminton at the swan center in Rathmines. Each week the IES staff rents out the athletic center for 2 hours and anyone is welcome to join them for squash, tennis and badminton. This week only 5 of us showed up (as usual), but the small group is actually really fun. I tried out squash this week and found out it's harder than racquetball... I guess I'll have to dedicate myself to practicing. I also spent over an hour playing badminton and found out that it can be a cut throat sport (this whole weekend I've been super sore from my games). Well, after letting off some steam on the court I returned home and went grocery shopping. We then went out to Flannery's with some people who were visiting a friend. The pub was really fun and I busted some moves on the dance floor:-)

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leery) and it was beautiful! It's about 20 minutes south on the DART train and it's right on the coast. The day started out pretty cloudy and cold, but as the day went on the sun peeked out a few times and the temperature rose a bit. In Dun Laoghaire we walked along the pier and watched some sailing in the harbor. There was also a sunday market set up in a little park so I looked around the market with a friend and bought some food. The atmosphere of the market was great and there were kids playing everywhere in Dun Laoghaire. After eating lunch at the market we walked down the coast and saw a beach area. Shockingly there was an old man who was swimming without a wetsuit! As I watched him from the beach with my winter coat on I realized I may be losing my tolerance to cold... there were a bunch of other people scuba diving but they were all in wetsuits. I think it looked like a lot of fun, but I think I would rather attempt it in the spring or summer. I'm not really over excited to get into the water when it's in the 40's. After getting done in Dun Laoghaire my friend Jess and I returned on the DART and attempted to get into the Custom House. Unfortunately they didn't open when my travel guide said they would so we just looked at the house from the outside which was still impressive.

We also walked up the Liffey and saw a replica ship that would have carried people over to America during the famine. The ship was tiny and it was so sad to think about how many people they crammed on those ships. We also walked by the Famine Figures, which are statues commemorating the million plus victims of the famine. It was really a haunting area, but a reminder of how awful the famine was for Ireland. I then decided to split ways with Jess and wander through the city center towards St. Stephen's Green. There are so many side streets that I haven't seen yet so it was good to just take a roundabout way back to the Luas stop.

Hope all is well with everyone and I miss you a lot! Thanks for taking the time to read the blog:) I'll try to fill it with some really interesting facts from Northern Ireland soon, because we leave on Thursday morning!

Baile Átha Cliath

translation: Dublin. Yes, this weekend I finally had a weekend in Dublin and in the Irish spirit I've decided to incorporate some Irish into my post. It was so nice not traveling anywhere this weekend, catching up on sleep, and finally getting to know the city center (sort of). This week in class I finally am starting to get some homework, I guess I can't spend my entire time here being lazy and having fun. I also am finally starting to feel a bit more confident with my Irish language class and that's pretty exciting.

Recently we've started learning blessings and curses which are a very important part of the Irish language. I think the curses are pretty funny and my favorite one is:

Go gcuire sé sconna ort! - that it may give you diarrhea

We'll start the weekend on Friday. I woke up rather late and took the LUAS to the IES Center where I met the IES advisors to go to a health center and play squash and badminton for a few hours. I had such a great time!!! I didn't realize how much I missed playing racquetball until I stepped onto the squash court. It was also nice to get to know our staff because they are so nice and it's always nice to talk to some Irish people. After we played badminton intensely for about an hour the staff treated us to a pint at a traditional pub called Corrigan's. I of course got a Bulmers and just had a great time talking to the staff about our Belfast trip which is happening in two weeks. Later that night I just went to the city center with some friends and hung out around the Temple Bar area.

póg mo thóin- kiss my ass (this one is pretty touristy, so not many Irish speakers say it)

Saturday I decided to go down to the city center again with Maura and we stopped at the National Museum which is right by Trinity College. The Museum had exhibits from Prehistoric Ireland, Medieval Ireland, Egypt, Viking Ireland, and much more. My favorite part about the museum was the bog body exhibit. It was so creepy, but super interesting. Basically they have about 4 bodies that have been preserved for thousands of years in the bogs of Ireland. One body was complete and the others are just parts like a torso. Here is a picture of the head on one which still had it's hair- i couldn't believe how well they were preserved! After the National Museum we headed over to the National Gallery which had so much art! We looked around for about an hour and a half and still didn't make it through the gallery, but I could only take about that much art. The best part of the gallery was recognizing art from our Art History Class slides.

Go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo arís! - may we all be here this time next year

Moving on from the gallery we wandered in a semi lost state and ran into Marrion Square, which is basically miniature St. Stephen's Green. The weather was brisk, but clear so we decided to eat lunch in the grass and relax there for a while. The best part about the part were the kids playing, people walking, and the overall lively attitude. There were also flowers blooming which makes me so excited for the spring! After finishing lunch we walked to Number Twenty Nine, a historical house from the 1700's. Basically they refurbished the house and made it like it would have been in the late 1700's. We got a personal tour from a tiny, elderly, Irish man who was adorable. The house was 5 stories high and pretty narrow. I couldn't believe how beautiful the house was and it was really worth the stop. It's hard to imagine how different Dublin was in those times, but this house was on the outskirts of Dubiln in it's day and now it's in the middle of the city center. After this tour we were pretty tired and was extremely sore from my badminton and squash- which was unbelievable...I guess I'm really out of shape, so we headed back to Dundrum and spent the night in the apartment relaxing.

Do chleamhnas féin agat! -may you choose your own spouse.

Sunday arrived and I woke up early to go to church. I decided to attend mass at Christ Church Cathedral in Southwest Dublin (by Dublin Castle). The church was beautiful and the service was surprisingly similar to home. The only real difference was a decent choir and a really friendly atmosphere for such a big cathedral. After mass we were invited down to the crypt for coffee and tea which was an interesting experience.

The members of the church were really friendly and one man talked to us for about 30 minutes about Northern Ireland and Belfast. He encouraged us to come back for concerts they have during the week and mass on Sunday and I think I'll definitely go again just for the experience when I'm in Dublin on the weekends. Another tiny pretentious English man came up to us and insisted we come back for a mass when the actual cathedral choir was singing, because he claimed the music was 'dreadful and painful' that mass. I hadn't found it that bad, but I guess he expects 'musical and liturgical perfection in a cathedral setting.' That guy seriously cracked us up because he was so critical of everything and wasn't afraid to talk shit about the choir director in front of everyone.

After we were done in the crypt...we headed over to Dublin Castle, but it was closed for tours. So I decided to go to Chester Beatty Library which is now a museum/gallery. I saw a pretty impressive collection of Japanese art called One Hundred Aspects of the Moon. It was 100 paintings of mythical stories important to Japanese culture and they were from the late 1800's. The museum also had a very extensive exhibit on world religion so overall I had a very religious day.

Go raibh maith agat agus slan! (thanks and goodbye)

Cork, Ireland

On Friday February 8th, I left on the Iarnrod Eireann on my way to Cork, Ireland. I left Dublin at noon and arrived at around 3 at the Kent Station in the city center of Cork. My friend Karin has been studying at University College Cork and she was nice enough to let me stay with her this weekend and show me around her city. She lives right by the Lee River and the Beamish (beer) Factory. She picked me up at the station and we walked to her apartment. After dropping my stuff off we made our way up to St. Fin Barre's Church which was beautiful. We were lucky enough to get in without having to pay the fee and we though the church was really stunning. We also walked around the grounds and then made our way to the UCC campus where she goes to school. Her campus is a lot like Hogwarts which was really fun!

After walking around the town we went back to her apartment, made some pizza, and watched a movie. When we were done relaxing and eating we made our way to An Brog (the shoe, in Irish) which is the UCC pub. We just hung out with some of Karin's friends and some Irish students from UCC. We had some Bulmers and had a great night.

On Saturday we woke up early and took a bus out to Bishopstown, which is essentially a suburb of Cork, to watch a rugby game. Along the way to the bus stop we walked through the English Market which is a huge indoor market that runs 6 days a week. They had everything from bakery, fish, meat, fruit, chocolate, and souvenirs. I really want to try and find a place like this in Dublin, but I'm sure it would be difficult to buy groceries due to how far out of the city I live. Anyway, we didn't know exactly where the fields were or what to expect from the UCC rugby team, but it turned out to be more of a practice or scrimmage rather than a game so we took the bus back rather quickly to the city center. After failing at watching a real rugby game we walked over to the Cork City Gaol, which was pretty creepy. There were wax figures everywhere which was amusing, but the Gaol had a lot of history which was interesting. (there's Karin with one of the creepy wax wardens off to the left...) The Gaol opened in the early 1800's and held both male and female inmates who mainly were convicted of petty crimes through that century. In the 1920's it was over capacity with republican fighters who opposed the treaty of 1921. At this point it was dirty, disease ridden, and inhabitable and it was closed soon after. The historical society then fixed it up and now has a nice tour and audio-visual show. I'd say it was worth visiting and now I'm pretty excited to see Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin which is supposed to be even better.

After the City Gaol we stopped at the sports pavilion where we saw a girls Hurling match going on. After being disappointed with our rugby game we decided to watch the match and it turned out to be really fun. It was a lot more low key compared to the men's hurling I've seen on tv, but it still was a good time and a nice way to sit and relax in the middle of a busy sightseeing day. After we watched the UCC team lose we left for Fitzgerald Park which has a museum and a lot of artwork. We saw a lot of great murals, some flowers blooming which was exciting, and a lot of green all around. The museum was a history of Ireland and of Cork more specifically. There was a great photography display upstairs which was actually on it's last day at the museum. Here we got to see black and white photos from all over Ireland and it was a great way to see the natural beauty from all the different counties. I really enjoyed the museum and the park which I found beautiful. After spending some time indoors we were ready to face the dampness outside and we walked to the Thirsty Scholar and watched the beginning of the France-Ireland Rugby game. Ireland was really far behind and made a valiant effort to come back, but just fell short which was sad to see. I can proudly saw that I now know some of the rugby rules and lingo and I do enjoy watching the games.

That night we were both really tired from a day of walking and touring so we just made dinner and watched some movies and went to bed (I know, really thrilling). It was a good thing I got to bed early though, because I woke up at 8 the next morning to catch a bus to Blarney which is an early morning for me! When you go to Cork you have to take the 20 minute bus tour to Blarney, because everyone wants to kiss the Blarney Stone. I actually heard this is one of the 99 things you should do before you die, so I guess I can cross one of those off my list. Blarney is a tiny town of about 2000 people that gets over 200,000 tourists a year. The Blarney Castle itself is really impressive, but I especially enjoyed the grounds around the castle. (a picture which I cannot figure out how to rotate once again is to the left, it really is a pretty castle!) Since, I left so early I got into the grounds right when it opened and basically had the grounds to myself which was amazing! On the grounds I got to see: The Wishing Steps, which had a pretty waterfall by it:

The Dolmen, 1 huge rock balancing on another large boulder:

and the Witch's Face (look at it from the side and you can see the Witch)

After walking around the grounds for about an hour I climbed to the top of the Blarney Castle and kissed the stone- which was pretty germ ridden. The castle had some pretty narrow spiral staircases and a ton of rooms to look at. Some of the rooms were bedrooms, a chapel, a kitchen, a family room, and a dining room. To the right, you can see the Blarney stone and that's where you have to lay down on your back and grab the pole and kiss the stone. It's pretty high up, but the chances of falling are low so I wasn't too afraid. From the top you could also see all the grounds and part of Blarney and it was a great view. The picture to the left is the view of some of the castle ruins from the top of the Blarney Castle.

Overall, I really enjoyed my trip to Cork, Ireland and I would recommend visiting Blarney and Cork if you are ever in Ireland. It was great to see a familiar face and stay with a friend from school and Karin really showed me a great time in Cork. As for this week I'm planning on taking it easy, because I'm coming down with a cold. This weekend I'm staying in Dublin and hoping to see some of the sights around the city. I really want to go to St. Patrick's Cathedral for church on Sunday and on Friday and Saturday I want to see some of the museums and art galleries around the city center. There are still a ton of things I haven't seen in Dublin and this weekend I'm hoping to hit up some of the things I still haven't seen.

London Calling

This weekend I left for my first trip outside of Ireland with my friends Maura, Jess, Reba, and Megan and we went to London! We left at 4:30 AM, which was brutal, and took a taxi to the Dublin airport and our flight arrived in Gatwick Airport around 9 AM. We then had to take a train into the city of London, because Gatwick is pretty far out. The train took about an hour and was more expensive than I originally thought it would be, a sign for things to come in downtown London. After the train ride we got off at Prancras Station in Bloomsbury. Reba had a friend attending University College London and she let us stay in her and her friend’s dorm room, which was amazing. This not only saved us a lot of money on a hostel or hotel, but she also was our personal tour guide and planner for the weekend. After getting rid of our bags we left for lunch at a pub and then were off sightseeing for the rest of the day. We started out with a stop at the British Museum. I couldn't believe how extensive the museum was and the fact that it was free made it even better! My favorite exhibits were the Parthenon ruins, Egyptian artifacts and mummies, and the African exhibit. The Parthenon ruins were shocking, because I had no idea how much they actually had left. There were amazingly beautiful parts of the building intact and Maura was able to give us some history because she took a Greek history class last summer. The Egyptian part of the museum was a bit creepy, because they had mummified bodies all over the place, but it was definitely worth stopping into. The bodies were a lot smaller than I expected and were really impressive.

After finishing up at the British Museum we walked over to Chinatown and got some cheap tickets to Avenue Q along the way. We then walked to Trafalgar Square and got our first view of Big Ben in the distance. The square was full of statues and 2 huge fountains and it was packed with tourists. There were some really great buildings around and I really liked it overall. We also saw the art museum near the square and then had to stop in a cafe to warm up.

After warming up we walked back to the theater and saw our matinee show of Avenue Q which was hilarious. If you're not familiar with the show, it's basically a musical with puppets and people based in New York and I'd really recommend it:-) By this time we were running on empty, because we were hungry and tired from a day of travel. We stopped at an Italian Restaurant in the area of the theaters and got some great pizza and then attempted to ride to the tube back and failed. 3 of the tube lines are either closed or under construction so our stop didn't work and we were forced to walk back in the cold. That night we all passed out pretty early and planned to wake up early the next morning

The next morning we got a relatively early start at around 10:30 and took the tube to the Nottinghill area where we planned on going to Portobello Market. This market was the largest market I've ever been to and I couldn't believe how extensive it was. There were clothes, artwork, telescopes, antiques, fruit, cooked food, and much more all down the street. It was pretty much packed and we struggled our way up and down the street for about an hour and a half. For lunch we stopped and got some muffins and fruit which was delicious and cheap!

After finishing up at the market we headed down to Harrods and spent a little while walking through the store and looking at how ridiculous it was. I think you could probably easily buy anything you need in that store if you had a lot of money and we needed a map to get around. It was fun looking at all the crazy things being sold and we even stopped in the pet department where they sell animals and pet accessories. We then moved on to Buckingham Palace and walked around the park near the palace. The palace itself was beautiful and it was fun looking around the area. We didn't go on a tour or anything due to our lack of time and money, but I still liked it a lot.

We kept walking from there and ended up at Westminster and got to hear Big Ben strike 4 o'clock. I loved the Parliament building and I think the Westminster area was my favorite part of London. I just liked being right on the river with the huge buildings and I thought it was a great place. Apparently I'm not computer savvy enough to know how to rotate this picture...so you get a side view of Big Ben. What are the chances all my pictures were this direction??

From here we crossed the river, ate dinner, and looked around some of the shops by the river. We then went to the London Eye and picked up our tickets for an 8 o'clock ride. I think that the Eye would be awesome during the day, but I think the night ride was the way to go. If you aren't familiar with the London Eye, it's basically a huge ferris wheel right on the water near across from Big Ben. Each part of the ferris wheel can easily hold 15 people and it's the best way to see the city of London from high up. We boarded when the sun had set and the lights of the city were beautiful. I especially loved looking at Parliament at night and just seeing how far the city went for. I tried to take some pictures of London at night, but my camera didn't really work too well. Instead I got some video on my camera that shows how pretty everything was at night. After we got off the Eye, which took about 30 minutes, we were pretty tired and started to head back for Bloomsbury. Along the way we stopped at some shops and got some souvenirs and food. We took the tube home and went to bed pretty early again....no night life for us in London

Sunday morning, we decided to get an early start and leave at 8:15, on a mission to find platform 9 3/4. When we arrived we had seen that the Pancras train station had been across the street from King's Cross and one of us had heard that there was a platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross (the station where Harry picks up the train for all of you who don't read harry potter). I thought that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see this while I was in London so we left to look. King's Cross was under construction so things weren't looking good, but luckily they left a little section open to the public where the platform was and I was able to see a fake platform!! It was very exciting:-) After this we encountered some issues with our train to Gatwick and were informed it didn't run through Pancras on this particular Sunday due to maintenance. This was of course stressful, so we had to take the tube down to London Bridge and hope the train ran there. Luckily we were able to hop on a train there and transfer in East Croyton to get to Gatwick. More little problems ensued, but nothing major. We didn't miss our flight and we got back to Dublin midday. We were lazy and decided to share a taxi back to the Rathmines area and our taxi was pulled over in the heart of city center next to Trinity College. Our taxi driver decided to "get cheeky" with the garda and there was a ticket. After a few awkward minutes we were on our way again and finally made it home. Whew, it was a really busy weekend where we made the best of our time and had some great craic!