After sitting around the apartment for a few days over Christmas, we took a 3 day holiday to Scotland on December 27 to check out Edinburgh (our first international trip since being in Europe!). Our 6:30am flight was a bit rough, but after a quick hour flight we were in Scotland and didn't even have to pass through customs (which was actually a bad thing as we wanted to get stamps to activate our UK visas just in case we want them later, but our visas should still be ok without them); we still don't really understand how you can fly into another country without seeing a single airport official, but I suppose we're used to strict American security policies! We took a bus into Edinburgh and the sun was just starting to rise, which looked gorgeous over the cityscape. We walked to our hostel which was slightly south of the city centre, through a large park called the Meadows and dropped off our bags. The women at the front desk was not nice or accommodating in anyway, but the hostel was a cozy house and proved to be a pretty decent place to stay in the end.
We all needed a boost of energy and therefore went to the closest coffee shop, which happened to be Starbucks; Edinburgh has a surprisingly large amount of Starbucks considering that it's a small city. After looking over some brochures, we decided to start the day with a 3 hour FREE walking tour of the city. Tips are encouraged if you enjoy the tour, but essentially it's a free way to see the city and learn all about the history behind the landmarks. Our tour guide was an energetic, witty Canadian and we learned tons of interesting facts and stories, and it was a beautiful, nearly cloudless day with sunshine- a rare treat in Edinburgh! We went by Edinburgh Castle, famous pubs, museums, a graveyard, parks, and weaved our way in and out of the city centre along the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is a street actually a bit over a mile and is Edinburgh's main thoroughfare. It starts at Holyroodhouse, the Queen's official palace in Scotland and has served as the principal residence of the kings and queens of Scotland since the 15th century. From there the Royal Mile continues uphill, ending at Edinburgh Castle at the top of Castle Rock. One interesting stop in the middle of the Royal Mile is the Heart of Midlothian, a heart-shaped mosaic built into the sidewalk. It represents the position of the 15th Century tollbooth which was the administrative centre of the town, prison and one of several sites of public execution. Today it is the only place in Edinburgh where you are legally allowed to spit, so naturally we felt inclined to take pictures of ourselves spitting on the heart (see Picasa photos).
After a quick lunch at Subway (hey, it’s cheap!), we climbed up a huge hill on the edge of the city called Arthur’s Seat. It was a steep incline and made us all heavily pant, but took only about 20 minutes to get to the top. It had incredible views of the city, including the castle and all the way out to an estuary called Firth of Fort. The sun was still shining, causing all of us to overheat in our big jackets and winter gear, but soon began to set and cast a gorgeous golden light over the cityscape. After our slow descent down the slippery slope, it was nearly dark (at 3:45!) and we decided that we definitely needed some coffee. We went to the Elephant House, the café where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter!!!!!!! Of course we were all immensely excited about this. We sat next to the window overlooking a cemetery and enormous school which inspired Hogwarts!! Very very cool.
That night we went on a ghost tour called “City of the Dead” which took us through the huge underground vault system under the city. In the 1700s the city was getting too crowded but people didn’t want to move outside the city walls, so they decided to build underneath the city. The vaults often flooded and were disgusting, full of sickly people, poor families, thieves, and waste. Many people died down there and until fairly recently the vaults were actually forgotten about. Today they claim that something called “The Entity” haunts the maze of vaults. Our tour guide believes that there was so much negative energy leftover from the people who used to live there that it built up and now attaches to other people with negative energy (i.e. those who are scared, depressed, etc). They have some pretty scary stories about people who have been caught down there and then come out with scratches all over their bodies yet those people don't feel anything at the time. The scratches always come in a set of 3 and are perfectly spaced apart, as if people are reaching out for help and attempting to grab whatever they can... pretty spooky! She also claimed that the energy can attach to you and follow you home, but luckily the three of us came out scratch free and didn’t experience anything creepy that night!
We started off Sunday with a trip to the castle! The castle overlooks the city and has some amazing views (see youtube videos). It took us over two hours to explore all the nooks and crannies of the castle, and we also went on a guided tour of the outside which was really interesting. The castle’s chapel is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh dating from the 1100s! There is also a prison where American prisoners of war from the American Revolution were taken, and we even saw etchings on a door of an American flag from way back then! The castle also houses the crown jewels of Scotland dating from the 15th Century (the second oldest in Europe) which consists of the crown, the scepter, and the sword of state. These were right next to the Stone of Destiny, the traditional coronation stone of Scottish Kings and Queens which is still a powerful symbol of Scottish independence. It was very neat to see but of course we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the historical artifacts.
For lunch we went to a famous pub called The Last Drop. Apparently back in the days of hanging by gallows they used to take the sentenced men/women to The Last Drop for their last drink before they were hung! It was pretty neat to eat there and we figured this would be a good place to try haggis! It’s sheep organs (heart, liver, kidneys) that are ground up and cooked in the stomach lining from the sheep- yum yum! It’s often served with tatties (mashed potatoes) and neeps (mashed turmips) and everything was surprisingly tasty. The consistency of haggis was a bit funky, but the flavor was nice.
After lunch we strolled around the city. We all really wanted to buy a kilt because they’re pretty cute but unfortunately none of us could find any that we liked for a reasonable price. We bought a couple small souvenirs, and then went on the 'Scottish Whisky Experience' tour. We learned all about how Scottish whisky is made, about the different types of whisky, and even got to taste test two different blends! None of us are big whisky drinkers, but it was still really interesting and fun, and we got free whisky glasses! Afterwards we got an afternoon snack: deep fried Mars bars! The Scotts deep fry pretty much anything you can think of, and though the bars looked pretty gross coming out of the fryer they were, of course, extremely delicious. That night we decided to do our own mini pub-crawl and hit the famous pubs in the city. We started out at Deacon Brodie's, named after the man who inspired the story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He was a locksmith who ran out of money so he began burglarizing all the rich people he made locks for. He was a reputable man so nobody ever considered him the culprit. Then he headed the search to find the 'thief' when really it was himself all along. The bartender was really nice (as were most people in Scotland) and let us sample 4 different Scottish beers, all pretty bland actually. After that we went to Maggie Dickson's. This story is crazy- essentially she was going to be hung for hiding the fact that she was pregnant. She was hung, put in the casket, and carried away. Suddenly noise started coming from the casket... she hadn’t died! But, she couldn’t be hung again because of double jeopardy, so she lived for another 40 years and opened a pub right next to The Last Drop. Brilliant! We really liked this pub because we could get mixed drinks for 1.95 pounds! That is waaay cheaper than Dublin. Actually, Edinburgh was a rather cheap city despite being on the pound (the exchange rate between the pound and euro right now is almost 1 to 1), which made us all very happy!
We decided to go on a tour of the Highlands in northern Scotland on our last day which lasted 12 hours. At the first stop on the trip we saw a highland cow! His name was Hamish and he was a very funny but cute looking animal. The whole Highland region was absolutely gorgeous, and it was actually sunny for most of it! The day was pretty perfect and we learned some interesting Scottish history as well. Around lunch time we went to Loch Ness! The lake has the largest volume of water in all of Scotland due to its great depths. It’s probably the most northern place any of us have ever been to, and my oh my was it cold! We took a one hour cruise on the lake and looked for the monster. Tales of Nessie have been around since the 6th century and were first recorded by a monk, but the frenzy didn’t really start until the 1930’s when the first photo of the alleged monster was published. Since then, Loch Ness has been a major site for tourism as people flock to try and catch a glimpse of the creature. Alas, Nessie eluded us, but we do believe! (At least, Erica and Sarah do; Erin is a little more hesitant). We decided to stay on the top part of the boat the whole time, so by the time we got off all three of us were numb.
On our drive back to the city we saw a magnificent sunset behind the tallest mountain in the UK called Ben Nevis! It was awesome. Because we had traveled pretty far north, it was going to take about 3 hours to drive back to the city. Our driver started playing Braveheart! We have wanted to watch that movie for a very long time because none of us have ever seen it so we were really excited. Halfway through, the movie stopped working! It was highly annoying because we still haven’t been able to find it at movie stores in Dublin and thus haven’t seen the end of the movie. Anyway, we got back to the city and then immediately headed off to the airport. It was a great trip and has made us all really exciting about traveling to other countries later this year!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Danger: Blowholes
We took a 4 day road trip before Christmas down to the Southeast of Ireland to celebrate the holidays and explore a few towns. Erica’s boyfriend Majid is visiting for Christmas and came on the trip with us, which was a lifesaver as we were supposed to get an automatic car but ended up getting a manual. None of the girls know how to drive a manual well enough, especially when you take left hand side driving into consideration, so if Majid hadn’t been there we have no idea what we would have done. The car was under Sarah’s name because she is the only 23 year old and technically was supposed to be the one and only driver. Of course, the car was parked directly in front of the office, so Sarah had to drive out of sight so that Majid could take over. A few stall outs later, Sarah managed to get going and turned down a side street, handing over the keys to Majid. He did quite well driving out of the city, especially considering that we didn’t have a map. After a quick breakfast in the small town called Kill, we were on our way to Kilkenny.
It only took a couple hours for us to get to Kilkenny, and our first stop was at the castle. We took a pleasant walk around the grounds and inside the large castle. Afterwards we explored a few craft shops and walked along the main streets of the medieval “city,” which were bustling with Christmas shoppers and even a hilarious dancing Santa. We stopped for lunch at a little place called Mug Shot Café and then continued our walking tour, stopping at a couple churches along the way including the Dominican Black Abbey and St. Canice’s Cathedral. By this time it was dark, so we went to the grocery store and made our way to our hostel about 10 minutes outside of town. After driving on extremely dark roads and missing our turn, we eventually made it to Foulksrath Castle, which is a renovated 15th Century Norman castle supposedly haunted by the original owner’s daughter who was killed in the castle. It was really cool to stay in an old castle, and we spent the night playing cards by candlelight, drinking wine and making delicious curry for dinner.
After a sound night without sleep disruptions from the ghost, we walked around the castle/hostel before heading to the nearby Dunmore caves. We were the only people there and it was quite nice to have a private tour of the limestone caves. After descending hundreds of stairs (supposedly around 700 stairs in total throughout the cave) into the wet darkness, we learned that the cave was a site of a Viking massacre back in 928 and thus many artifacts have been uncovered by archaeologists deep in the cave. It is also the home to eyeless shrimp and 6mm “straws”, which are mini stalactites the exact diameter of raindrops that hang from the ceilings. It also has the biggest stalagmite in all of Europe, which strangely happens to be in the shape of a hand holding a Guinness pint over the Irish flag.
A man working at the cave suggested that we check out the priory ruins in nearby Kells, about a 30 minute drive away through tiny, twisting country roads. Upon reaching some ruins that we thought were the priory, we discover that the entrance was locked and tried to decipher a map showing the way to the actual priory entrance. Erica wanted to walk down the hillside, but the rest of us overruled her and decided to try to follow the map via our car. A few minutes and u-turns later, we find a parking lot that says “Entrance to Priory” next to a run down old mill on the river. We take a stroll for a few minutes along the water, only to discover that we’re on a peninsula and reach a dead end. We now half-jokingly conclude that this priory must not exist, and head back to the car and decide to drive down the road just a bit further to see if we can find it. To get out of the parking lot in the direction we wanted, it was an awkward, sharp right turn on a hill. This proved very difficult for Majid as he stalled out at the top and each time he restarted the car and tried again we sank further and further down the incline towards a stonewall. This was definitely the scariest car moment of the entire trip as we thought we might have no alternative but to crash into the wall. However, with a turn of the wheel in the opposite direction, Majid managed to get out of the situation and onto level ground again. With relief, we decide to give up on the priory and now have a new mission: lunch.
There were 3 pubs to choose from in Kells, and we walk into the first one to find it empty during prime lunch time on a Saturday afternoon. We ask the bartender if they’re serving lunch and he responds, “Food isn’t served on the weekends.” We’re completely mystified as to why a town wouldn’t serve food on the weekends, and this plus the nonexistence of the priory made Kells pretty worthless, though it was pretty scenery. We continued on our journey to New Ross, where we stopped for lunch and devoured fries and sandwiches. Then we took a tour of the Dunbrody famine ship, a recreation of the original ship built in 1845 which transported people and cargo from Ireland to the New World during the potato famine. We again had a private tour of the ship, and it was fascinating to learn about the conditions that people endured for 50 days in hopes of surviving long enough to make it to the US. Interestingly, JFK’s great-grandfather left from New Ross to New York, and Jean Kennedy Smith came for the launch of the replica in 2001. After our educational afternoon, we drove to nearby Waterford where we stopped for a coffee before heading to our hostel in the seaside town of Tramore. The Beach Haven hostel was really nice and clean, and the main room had a fireplace. We were all excited about having a real fireplace to sit by, but despite attempts by Erin and Majid to get a fire going using coal and a phonebook, it took a real Irishman to show us what fire starters look like in this country (grey blobs which were, naturally, right next to the fireplace).
The next morning we explored sleepy Tramore, where it was quite obvious that the town thrives as a summer resort but has little going on the rest of the year. We went in search of the famous “metal man,” a metal statue set on top of one of three pillars on the coast and originally erected to warn sailors of shallow waters. However, we couldn’t find the statue for awhile and, after driving for at least 20 minutes and asking for directions, see three pillars off in the distance with a tiny man on top of one of them. We couldn’t get anywhere near the statue, and wondered how a town could advertise having a statue that you can’t even get close to. Confused, we head to the beach to take some pictures and a walk. We quickly abandoned the idea of the walk after we got out of the car and realized how windy and cold it was. We snapped a few photos, then decided that Tramore had little to offer us and we continued on to Waterford.
We were all looking forward to the tour of the Waterford Crystal factory because it’s a big tourist attraction and is supposed to be really interesting. Sarah had called a couple weeks ago to make sure that tours were still going on so close to Christmas, and they were supposed to be open. However, we arrived only to discover that the workers had been sent home early a few days ago and therefore no factory tours were possible. Slightly annoyed, we walked around the crystal retail store which had some very impressive pieces of crystal- a grandfather clock, chandeliers, and even a small version of Cinderella’s carriage complete with horses, yours for only 23,000 Euros! Now it wasn’t even lunchtime and we weren’t sure what to do with ourselves, so we went to a museum called the Museum of Treasures which had a few interesting artifacts but was pretty much a waste of money as it went into excessive detail about Waterford’s history. After a great lunch at Subway, we visited a couple churches and then had dessert and coffee at a really cute café. Finally we headed back to our hostel where we hung out for the rest of the night, watching tv, reading, and making dinner.
We woke up on our last morning and drove to Hook’s Head peninsula, taking a shortcut on a car ferry, much to Majid’s dismay. The peninsula was beautiful and we stopped at the lighthouse, which is the oldest working lighthouse in Europe (possibly even the world)! The existing tower dates to the 12th century, but some sort of beacon has been in place since the 5th century. The lighthouse was closed for Christmas, but we still had a lot of fun climbing on the seaside rocks and enjoying the scenery. We also saw a bunch of seals in the water right near the coast! Right near the lighthouse were haystacks, and as some of you may know Erica loves taking pictures on top of haystacks. We had trouble finding haystacks the entire trip because it was hard to find good places to pull off on the side of the road, but these were perfect and she was very happy. Our next stop was the coastal town of Wexford, a tiny place hard to maneuver by car. We didn’t have much time here because we needed to get back to Enterprise in Dublin that evening, so after a quick stroll through lively Main Street we had a delicious lunch at a café and were back on the road. A few hours later, after finding our way through rush hour and one-way streets in Dublin, we made it back just in time to return the car. It was a really fun few days!!
It only took a couple hours for us to get to Kilkenny, and our first stop was at the castle. We took a pleasant walk around the grounds and inside the large castle. Afterwards we explored a few craft shops and walked along the main streets of the medieval “city,” which were bustling with Christmas shoppers and even a hilarious dancing Santa. We stopped for lunch at a little place called Mug Shot Café and then continued our walking tour, stopping at a couple churches along the way including the Dominican Black Abbey and St. Canice’s Cathedral. By this time it was dark, so we went to the grocery store and made our way to our hostel about 10 minutes outside of town. After driving on extremely dark roads and missing our turn, we eventually made it to Foulksrath Castle, which is a renovated 15th Century Norman castle supposedly haunted by the original owner’s daughter who was killed in the castle. It was really cool to stay in an old castle, and we spent the night playing cards by candlelight, drinking wine and making delicious curry for dinner.
After a sound night without sleep disruptions from the ghost, we walked around the castle/hostel before heading to the nearby Dunmore caves. We were the only people there and it was quite nice to have a private tour of the limestone caves. After descending hundreds of stairs (supposedly around 700 stairs in total throughout the cave) into the wet darkness, we learned that the cave was a site of a Viking massacre back in 928 and thus many artifacts have been uncovered by archaeologists deep in the cave. It is also the home to eyeless shrimp and 6mm “straws”, which are mini stalactites the exact diameter of raindrops that hang from the ceilings. It also has the biggest stalagmite in all of Europe, which strangely happens to be in the shape of a hand holding a Guinness pint over the Irish flag.
A man working at the cave suggested that we check out the priory ruins in nearby Kells, about a 30 minute drive away through tiny, twisting country roads. Upon reaching some ruins that we thought were the priory, we discover that the entrance was locked and tried to decipher a map showing the way to the actual priory entrance. Erica wanted to walk down the hillside, but the rest of us overruled her and decided to try to follow the map via our car. A few minutes and u-turns later, we find a parking lot that says “Entrance to Priory” next to a run down old mill on the river. We take a stroll for a few minutes along the water, only to discover that we’re on a peninsula and reach a dead end. We now half-jokingly conclude that this priory must not exist, and head back to the car and decide to drive down the road just a bit further to see if we can find it. To get out of the parking lot in the direction we wanted, it was an awkward, sharp right turn on a hill. This proved very difficult for Majid as he stalled out at the top and each time he restarted the car and tried again we sank further and further down the incline towards a stonewall. This was definitely the scariest car moment of the entire trip as we thought we might have no alternative but to crash into the wall. However, with a turn of the wheel in the opposite direction, Majid managed to get out of the situation and onto level ground again. With relief, we decide to give up on the priory and now have a new mission: lunch.
There were 3 pubs to choose from in Kells, and we walk into the first one to find it empty during prime lunch time on a Saturday afternoon. We ask the bartender if they’re serving lunch and he responds, “Food isn’t served on the weekends.” We’re completely mystified as to why a town wouldn’t serve food on the weekends, and this plus the nonexistence of the priory made Kells pretty worthless, though it was pretty scenery. We continued on our journey to New Ross, where we stopped for lunch and devoured fries and sandwiches. Then we took a tour of the Dunbrody famine ship, a recreation of the original ship built in 1845 which transported people and cargo from Ireland to the New World during the potato famine. We again had a private tour of the ship, and it was fascinating to learn about the conditions that people endured for 50 days in hopes of surviving long enough to make it to the US. Interestingly, JFK’s great-grandfather left from New Ross to New York, and Jean Kennedy Smith came for the launch of the replica in 2001. After our educational afternoon, we drove to nearby Waterford where we stopped for a coffee before heading to our hostel in the seaside town of Tramore. The Beach Haven hostel was really nice and clean, and the main room had a fireplace. We were all excited about having a real fireplace to sit by, but despite attempts by Erin and Majid to get a fire going using coal and a phonebook, it took a real Irishman to show us what fire starters look like in this country (grey blobs which were, naturally, right next to the fireplace).
The next morning we explored sleepy Tramore, where it was quite obvious that the town thrives as a summer resort but has little going on the rest of the year. We went in search of the famous “metal man,” a metal statue set on top of one of three pillars on the coast and originally erected to warn sailors of shallow waters. However, we couldn’t find the statue for awhile and, after driving for at least 20 minutes and asking for directions, see three pillars off in the distance with a tiny man on top of one of them. We couldn’t get anywhere near the statue, and wondered how a town could advertise having a statue that you can’t even get close to. Confused, we head to the beach to take some pictures and a walk. We quickly abandoned the idea of the walk after we got out of the car and realized how windy and cold it was. We snapped a few photos, then decided that Tramore had little to offer us and we continued on to Waterford.
We were all looking forward to the tour of the Waterford Crystal factory because it’s a big tourist attraction and is supposed to be really interesting. Sarah had called a couple weeks ago to make sure that tours were still going on so close to Christmas, and they were supposed to be open. However, we arrived only to discover that the workers had been sent home early a few days ago and therefore no factory tours were possible. Slightly annoyed, we walked around the crystal retail store which had some very impressive pieces of crystal- a grandfather clock, chandeliers, and even a small version of Cinderella’s carriage complete with horses, yours for only 23,000 Euros! Now it wasn’t even lunchtime and we weren’t sure what to do with ourselves, so we went to a museum called the Museum of Treasures which had a few interesting artifacts but was pretty much a waste of money as it went into excessive detail about Waterford’s history. After a great lunch at Subway, we visited a couple churches and then had dessert and coffee at a really cute café. Finally we headed back to our hostel where we hung out for the rest of the night, watching tv, reading, and making dinner.
We woke up on our last morning and drove to Hook’s Head peninsula, taking a shortcut on a car ferry, much to Majid’s dismay. The peninsula was beautiful and we stopped at the lighthouse, which is the oldest working lighthouse in Europe (possibly even the world)! The existing tower dates to the 12th century, but some sort of beacon has been in place since the 5th century. The lighthouse was closed for Christmas, but we still had a lot of fun climbing on the seaside rocks and enjoying the scenery. We also saw a bunch of seals in the water right near the coast! Right near the lighthouse were haystacks, and as some of you may know Erica loves taking pictures on top of haystacks. We had trouble finding haystacks the entire trip because it was hard to find good places to pull off on the side of the road, but these were perfect and she was very happy. Our next stop was the coastal town of Wexford, a tiny place hard to maneuver by car. We didn’t have much time here because we needed to get back to Enterprise in Dublin that evening, so after a quick stroll through lively Main Street we had a delicious lunch at a café and were back on the road. A few hours later, after finding our way through rush hour and one-way streets in Dublin, we made it back just in time to return the car. It was a really fun few days!!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Around Dublin
As you can see, we've been pretty lazy about updating the blog. I (Sarah) will now attempt to give a synopsis of the last few weeks...
Well, we're finally starting to feel comfortable and at home in Dublin, and have been having a lot of fun. We went to a social for BUNAC (the organization which helped us get our visas) which was at a pub's amateur comedy night. The acts were all quite funny, except for this one lady who got up on stage and started singing a’capella about trees and rivers, who needless to say did not get a warm reception from the crowd. That night I met a couple other girls who work at the same university I do, one American and one Canadian. It was really nice to meet other people who can relate to my job, and I've hung out with both of them since then.
Speaking of jobs, I’m not enjoying mine very much- the office is chaotic and I have a ton of responsibility. Most days aren’t too bad, but I’ve learned that I don’t want to work in an office again anytime soon! Erica and Erin, on the other hand, really like their job at Abbey Court, and have met some cool people who we’ve all hung out with a bunch. We’ve had some great craic (pronounced crack- Irish term for fun, haha!) with them out at the pub and at a couple parties. One memorable night, as some of you have already heard about, was when the 3 of us and Cayla (New Zealander who works at Abby Court) went to our favourite local pub, The Woolshed (pitchers of beer for €9.50 on Thursdays- can’t beat that)! Thursday is also karaoke night, and we decided to sing a song in honor of our W&M friends: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. It’s one of those songs that would come on and everyone would start singing along to it, so we thought it’d be funny to karaoke to it. The 3 of us had never karaoked before, but it was so much fun, even though I’m sure we sounded horrible, but people at the pub seemed to get really into too and sang along! Later that night we heard our names getting called again, and it turns out that we won the prize- we didn’t even know that there was one! It was a €30 gift certificate for food, so we went back a couple weeks later and got a huge platter of greasy goodness- garlic fries, chicken wings, spring rolls, onion rings and potato skins- yummy!
We ventured outside the city on a Monday bank holiday a couple weeks ago because we all had the day off. We went on a bus tour (once again, for free!!) down south of Dublin to the Wicklow Mountains, and it was freezing! It was extremely windy and a lot colder than we had anticipated; we certainly were not dressed properly. The countryside was beautiful, and our pictures don’t even look real- it looks like we snapped a photo of fake model-sized mountains and trees. One lake we stopped at is nicknamed the “Guinness Lake” because the water is so dark that it really looks like it’s filled with Guinness. At this stop we got complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits, which was amazing as we struggled to stay warm. Later in the day we went to St. Kevin’s Monastery in Glendalough (“a glen of two lakes”), the origins of which date back to the 6th century. For about 500 years it was one of Ireland’s great ecclesiastical foundations and schools of learning, was continuously attacked by the Danes but ultimately got destroyed by the Normans in 1214. It was a really interesting place to wander around with old headstones, crosses, ruins, and scenic valleys and lakes. Pictures will be up on Picasa soon!
Well those are some of the highlights from the last 3 weeks. As some of you know, today is my birthday and Erin, Stephanie (our housemate) and I are going to a wine bar for dinner! I'm excited. Erica's parents are visiting right now so she is driving around the country with them- unfortunately missing my birthday but still having a great time with her family!
Well, we're finally starting to feel comfortable and at home in Dublin, and have been having a lot of fun. We went to a social for BUNAC (the organization which helped us get our visas) which was at a pub's amateur comedy night. The acts were all quite funny, except for this one lady who got up on stage and started singing a’capella about trees and rivers, who needless to say did not get a warm reception from the crowd. That night I met a couple other girls who work at the same university I do, one American and one Canadian. It was really nice to meet other people who can relate to my job, and I've hung out with both of them since then.
Speaking of jobs, I’m not enjoying mine very much- the office is chaotic and I have a ton of responsibility. Most days aren’t too bad, but I’ve learned that I don’t want to work in an office again anytime soon! Erica and Erin, on the other hand, really like their job at Abbey Court, and have met some cool people who we’ve all hung out with a bunch. We’ve had some great craic (pronounced crack- Irish term for fun, haha!) with them out at the pub and at a couple parties. One memorable night, as some of you have already heard about, was when the 3 of us and Cayla (New Zealander who works at Abby Court) went to our favourite local pub, The Woolshed (pitchers of beer for €9.50 on Thursdays- can’t beat that)! Thursday is also karaoke night, and we decided to sing a song in honor of our W&M friends: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. It’s one of those songs that would come on and everyone would start singing along to it, so we thought it’d be funny to karaoke to it. The 3 of us had never karaoked before, but it was so much fun, even though I’m sure we sounded horrible, but people at the pub seemed to get really into too and sang along! Later that night we heard our names getting called again, and it turns out that we won the prize- we didn’t even know that there was one! It was a €30 gift certificate for food, so we went back a couple weeks later and got a huge platter of greasy goodness- garlic fries, chicken wings, spring rolls, onion rings and potato skins- yummy!
We ventured outside the city on a Monday bank holiday a couple weeks ago because we all had the day off. We went on a bus tour (once again, for free!!) down south of Dublin to the Wicklow Mountains, and it was freezing! It was extremely windy and a lot colder than we had anticipated; we certainly were not dressed properly. The countryside was beautiful, and our pictures don’t even look real- it looks like we snapped a photo of fake model-sized mountains and trees. One lake we stopped at is nicknamed the “Guinness Lake” because the water is so dark that it really looks like it’s filled with Guinness. At this stop we got complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits, which was amazing as we struggled to stay warm. Later in the day we went to St. Kevin’s Monastery in Glendalough (“a glen of two lakes”), the origins of which date back to the 6th century. For about 500 years it was one of Ireland’s great ecclesiastical foundations and schools of learning, was continuously attacked by the Danes but ultimately got destroyed by the Normans in 1214. It was a really interesting place to wander around with old headstones, crosses, ruins, and scenic valleys and lakes. Pictures will be up on Picasa soon!
Well those are some of the highlights from the last 3 weeks. As some of you know, today is my birthday and Erin, Stephanie (our housemate) and I are going to a wine bar for dinner! I'm excited. Erica's parents are visiting right now so she is driving around the country with them- unfortunately missing my birthday but still having a great time with her family!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Picture Update
We now have a new website for our pictures since most of you were having trouble viewing the Snapfish photos, and we wouldn't want you to miss out on seeing them!
http://picasaweb.google.com/eegrady
We promise this will work better :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/eegrady
We promise this will work better :)
Guinness is Good for You
A couple weekends ago we went to the Guinness Storehouse, the brewery in Dublin at St. James Gate. It was a really interesting place, and because Erin and Erica work at a hostel they got in for free (and Sarah got a discount)! The building is modeled on a giant pint glass, stretching up from the ground floor to the Gravity Bar at the very top. They have the original lease displayed in the entrance, signed by Arthur Guinness in 1979 and good for 9,000 years at an annual rent of £100- not a bad deal huh? The first part of the brewery explains the brewing process and details about barley, hops, yeast and water, the 4 ingredients used to make the beer. Guinness gets its dark color from the roasted barley and this one brewery alone uses 100,000 tons of Irish grown barley per year in the process.
Next we got a small taste of the new brew they are experimenting with in the tasting lab, which wasn’t too tasty; it was like a watered down version of regular Guinness. We then made our way through the history of Guinness advertising filled with old memorabilia which was really cool to see. There were lots of old bottles, coasters, stickers, posters, glasses, and a huge variety of other Guinness paraphernalia. “Guinness is good for you” was an old slogan used after some serious scientific researchers in the 1920s asked Guinness drinkers why they drink the beer, and they continuously heard the same reason: “because it makes me feel good.” For a long time people thought there were medical benefits associated with the beverage, so doctors used to prescribe it, and people also thought that it made them stronger. Next we learned about the history of the Guinness Book of World Records. None of us had ever made the connection before that the book was associated with the beer, though now the link seems pretty obvious. The story goes that in 1951 the managing director of the brewery went on a hunting party and got into an argument about what game bird was the fastest in Europe. After realizing that it was impossible to confirm this fact in reference books, and supposing that every night in pubs across the world people must debate about various topics, he had the idea for the book. It was first published in 1954, and the rest is history- it now holds its own record as the best-selling copyrighted book of all time.
One room in the storehouse was quite unique, it had a circular wall of small, rectangular pieces of paper posted from top to bottom where anyone can write whatever they want. People from all over the world come to the storehouse as it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Dublin, so it was cool to peruse the wall and see what the people before us had written. Erica and Erin both left a message (Sarah wasn’t feeling creative at the moment). Erin wrote, “American girls love Guinness, it’s good for us!” and drew an American flag outlined by the words “Go grab a pint of Guinness.” Erica wrote, “On a rainy day drink Guinness! (In Ireland, that’s everyday!)” accompanied by a picture of an umbrella safely covering a pint of Guinness from raindrops.
The last stop on the tour was the Gravity Bar, which is at the top of the storehouse. It’s the tallest building in the city with glass walls, allowing for a 360 degree view of the city. It was pretty cloudy and foggy, but still great views. You get a free pint of Guinness included with the ticket, so we hung out and drank the delicious “black gold.” It’s served at 6 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit), and the proper way to pour it is to fill the glass at an angle about 75% of the way, and then wait for it to settle for about 90 seconds. Then you top off the head of the beer, and you’ve got a delicious pint! Guinness is sold in 150 countries around the world, with 10 million glasses sold every day (3 million of which are sold within the Republic of Ireland, despite a population of just over 4 million!). We all 3 have learned to appreciate the beer so central to Irish culture.
Next we got a small taste of the new brew they are experimenting with in the tasting lab, which wasn’t too tasty; it was like a watered down version of regular Guinness. We then made our way through the history of Guinness advertising filled with old memorabilia which was really cool to see. There were lots of old bottles, coasters, stickers, posters, glasses, and a huge variety of other Guinness paraphernalia. “Guinness is good for you” was an old slogan used after some serious scientific researchers in the 1920s asked Guinness drinkers why they drink the beer, and they continuously heard the same reason: “because it makes me feel good.” For a long time people thought there were medical benefits associated with the beverage, so doctors used to prescribe it, and people also thought that it made them stronger. Next we learned about the history of the Guinness Book of World Records. None of us had ever made the connection before that the book was associated with the beer, though now the link seems pretty obvious. The story goes that in 1951 the managing director of the brewery went on a hunting party and got into an argument about what game bird was the fastest in Europe. After realizing that it was impossible to confirm this fact in reference books, and supposing that every night in pubs across the world people must debate about various topics, he had the idea for the book. It was first published in 1954, and the rest is history- it now holds its own record as the best-selling copyrighted book of all time.
One room in the storehouse was quite unique, it had a circular wall of small, rectangular pieces of paper posted from top to bottom where anyone can write whatever they want. People from all over the world come to the storehouse as it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Dublin, so it was cool to peruse the wall and see what the people before us had written. Erica and Erin both left a message (Sarah wasn’t feeling creative at the moment). Erin wrote, “American girls love Guinness, it’s good for us!” and drew an American flag outlined by the words “Go grab a pint of Guinness.” Erica wrote, “On a rainy day drink Guinness! (In Ireland, that’s everyday!)” accompanied by a picture of an umbrella safely covering a pint of Guinness from raindrops.
The last stop on the tour was the Gravity Bar, which is at the top of the storehouse. It’s the tallest building in the city with glass walls, allowing for a 360 degree view of the city. It was pretty cloudy and foggy, but still great views. You get a free pint of Guinness included with the ticket, so we hung out and drank the delicious “black gold.” It’s served at 6 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit), and the proper way to pour it is to fill the glass at an angle about 75% of the way, and then wait for it to settle for about 90 seconds. Then you top off the head of the beer, and you’ve got a delicious pint! Guinness is sold in 150 countries around the world, with 10 million glasses sold every day (3 million of which are sold within the Republic of Ireland, despite a population of just over 4 million!). We all 3 have learned to appreciate the beer so central to Irish culture.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Galway Luck, Galway Girls
We made it out of the city yet again for one of our many adventures. This time, we took a bus across the country (the thought of being able to take a bus across a country is still staggering) to Galway on the west coast, which only took about four hours. We checked in to our hostel, where we got one of our two nights for free because of Erin and Erica's job benefits from Abby Court! Sarah just pretended that she worked at Abby Court too and avoided questions from the receptionists so that she could the discount too. The job perks went even further: we booked bus tours for the following two days, which normally costs 20 Euro a day, and got it all for free (saving a total of 120 Euro between the three of us)! Anyway, we were all famished when we arrived and went on a quest to find an inexpensive lunch, finally settling on a delicious crepe café which happened to be right next to an outdoor market. The market was filled with aromas from various types of food- from freshly baked bread, to espresso, to fresh fish- as well local craftsmen showcasing their trade. After resisting the urge to buy everything in sight, we continued to wander around the medieval city. We walked along the beach and came across an intense soccer match with dozens and dozens of male spectators. As we walked by they stared at us like we were aliens from another planet, it was bizarre. Later that afternoon we stopped in a café for coffee and dessert, and then went back to the hostel to take both HOT and LONG showers- neither of which is possible in our bathroom at home! We went out that night for a few pints and both the pubs were really fun and lively.
The next morning we got up for our (free) tour of the Connemara region to the northwest of Galway. Our driver, Michael, was funny and informative, telling us all about the history of the region from legends of leprechauns and fairies to the potato famine. The countryside was scattered with remains of old castles, tiny houses that were abandoned and left to crumble because of the famine, and of course cows, sheep and horses. We first stopped at an old friary from the 14th century called Ross Errily Abbey, which was really interesting. We drove by many different lakes and through gorgeous mountains covered in ferns and speckled with colors of changing leaves. A highlight of the day was Kylemore Abbey, a castle from the late 19th century which currently is a Monastic home for nuns and a private school for girls. There are still a few rooms open to the public, and you can also explore the grounds to see the Neo-Gothic Church and the Victorian walled garden. The house itself, Erin noted, looks exactly like one of those 3-D puzzles, and is situated right on a lake surrounded by mountains- quite the picturesque setting. The Neo-Gothic church was pretty inside with its marble columns, and the garden was lovely with geometric shaped flowerbeds and patterned designs. That night we went hit up the town again in search of live music. First we stopped in a small pub and listened to a group of four old men play traditional Irish sounding melodies with a fiddle, recorder, and bodhran (an Irish frame drum covered with goat skin). We happily listened to the music for awhile, but unfortunately they finished playing shortly thereafter so we went to another pub across the street where two men were also playing music. They played guitars and sang traditional Irish songs that all the Irish people knew; it looked like great fun as the Irish crowd sang along and danced to the music. The three of us were highly entertained and had a great time watching the merriment, and now the song “Galway Girl” is definitely one of our new favorites.
We rose in the morning for another bus tour, this time heading to the Burren region south of Galway. Our driver was an old man named Des, who literally repeated himself all day, “We’re heading to the cliffs- be there in about 15 minutes, we’re heading to the cliffs- be there in about 15 minutes, in about 15 minutes we’ll be at the cliffs, the cliffs are where we’ll be in 15 minutes.” Really funny at first, but highly annoying after 7 hours. Anyhow, this area was vastly different from the day before; the changes in landscape happen so quickly it’s pretty amazing. The Burren mountains are not grassy but rather very rocky, filled with limestone bedrocks. The region is great for archaeology, one of the most famous sites being the Poulnabrone Dolmen, a megalithic tomb dating back to the Neolithic period about 5800 years ago (older than the Egyptian pyramids)!! We stopped in the village of Kilfenora- called the “city of crosses” because of its abundance of 12th century celtic crosses- before stopping at the Cliffs of Moher, the main attraction of the day. The cliffs are one of the biggest tourist attractions in Ireland and were really cool. They touch the Atlantic Ocean, making it the closest we will be to home until we actually come back next year. We were extremely lucky with the weather the entire weekend as it didn’t rain once in our three days there, but apparently had rained almost every day since June before our arrival! Because it wasn’t muddy we got to wander on parts on the cliffs that often would be too dangerous. Despite the sign that warned, “Please do not go beyond this point,” there were many people who ventured past it and we decided to follow suit. Erin was pretty nervous being so close to the cliff edge, but we made our way slowly and it was well worth it. The views were stunning and we had fun taking pictures (see our Picasa web album). It was an incredible weekend!!
The next morning we got up for our (free) tour of the Connemara region to the northwest of Galway. Our driver, Michael, was funny and informative, telling us all about the history of the region from legends of leprechauns and fairies to the potato famine. The countryside was scattered with remains of old castles, tiny houses that were abandoned and left to crumble because of the famine, and of course cows, sheep and horses. We first stopped at an old friary from the 14th century called Ross Errily Abbey, which was really interesting. We drove by many different lakes and through gorgeous mountains covered in ferns and speckled with colors of changing leaves. A highlight of the day was Kylemore Abbey, a castle from the late 19th century which currently is a Monastic home for nuns and a private school for girls. There are still a few rooms open to the public, and you can also explore the grounds to see the Neo-Gothic Church and the Victorian walled garden. The house itself, Erin noted, looks exactly like one of those 3-D puzzles, and is situated right on a lake surrounded by mountains- quite the picturesque setting. The Neo-Gothic church was pretty inside with its marble columns, and the garden was lovely with geometric shaped flowerbeds and patterned designs. That night we went hit up the town again in search of live music. First we stopped in a small pub and listened to a group of four old men play traditional Irish sounding melodies with a fiddle, recorder, and bodhran (an Irish frame drum covered with goat skin). We happily listened to the music for awhile, but unfortunately they finished playing shortly thereafter so we went to another pub across the street where two men were also playing music. They played guitars and sang traditional Irish songs that all the Irish people knew; it looked like great fun as the Irish crowd sang along and danced to the music. The three of us were highly entertained and had a great time watching the merriment, and now the song “Galway Girl” is definitely one of our new favorites.
We rose in the morning for another bus tour, this time heading to the Burren region south of Galway. Our driver was an old man named Des, who literally repeated himself all day, “We’re heading to the cliffs- be there in about 15 minutes, we’re heading to the cliffs- be there in about 15 minutes, in about 15 minutes we’ll be at the cliffs, the cliffs are where we’ll be in 15 minutes.” Really funny at first, but highly annoying after 7 hours. Anyhow, this area was vastly different from the day before; the changes in landscape happen so quickly it’s pretty amazing. The Burren mountains are not grassy but rather very rocky, filled with limestone bedrocks. The region is great for archaeology, one of the most famous sites being the Poulnabrone Dolmen, a megalithic tomb dating back to the Neolithic period about 5800 years ago (older than the Egyptian pyramids)!! We stopped in the village of Kilfenora- called the “city of crosses” because of its abundance of 12th century celtic crosses- before stopping at the Cliffs of Moher, the main attraction of the day. The cliffs are one of the biggest tourist attractions in Ireland and were really cool. They touch the Atlantic Ocean, making it the closest we will be to home until we actually come back next year. We were extremely lucky with the weather the entire weekend as it didn’t rain once in our three days there, but apparently had rained almost every day since June before our arrival! Because it wasn’t muddy we got to wander on parts on the cliffs that often would be too dangerous. Despite the sign that warned, “Please do not go beyond this point,” there were many people who ventured past it and we decided to follow suit. Erin was pretty nervous being so close to the cliff edge, but we made our way slowly and it was well worth it. The views were stunning and we had fun taking pictures (see our Picasa web album). It was an incredible weekend!!
Friday, October 10, 2008
"Hey, it's a potato!"
Erica’s sister Natalie and her husband Jesse came to visit last week to celebrate their 1 year anniversary, and to see 3 of their favorite people, of course. They spent a couple days with us here in Dublin, where all 5 of us were cramped in our tiny bedroom and, to their chagrin, realized that we weren’t kidding about our lack of hot water. Luckily the 3 of us had the weekend off and tagged along to their trip to Northern Ireland. We left early Saturday morning to pick up the rental car, and Jesse actually works for Enterprise so he got an amazing deal on the car. It was pretty funny seeing Jesse drive on the left side of road for the first time; at first he seemed a bit nervous but then quickly adjusted to it. The GPS really helped at first as the voice told us specifically where to turn, and it became such an integral part to our drive that we endearingly named her “Siobhan” (a typical Irish name pronounced Sha-von).
Siobhan led us to the outskirts of Dublin where we stopped briefly for a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Where did we stop, you ask? A modern, clean and cheap café called McDonalds. Yes, dear friends, we stopped at a McDonalds that was really lovely and actually looked like a decent restaurant. After this we drove out of Dublin and through lovely country roads, and just past the town of Virginia (no lie!) we found a little place where we decided to take a scenic detour. Our detour took us to Lough Rammer, a lovely lake in the heart of the Irish countryside. Well, to be clear, the lake itself was lovely, but the shore where we stopped to look was anything but—it was littered with the remnants of many a day spent fishing: beer cans, empty bags of crisps and the like. However, the tranquility of the fishermen and the nice surrounding wooded area (not so littered with trash as the shore) made the lake a worthwhile detour.
Our detour to Lough Rammer didn’t really put us off schedule, and we made it to our first destination, Enniskillan, right around when we wanted to, approximately 2pm. Our destination in tiny Enniskillan was the castle. And what an underwhelming castle it is at first! There is only on old “castle looking” building. However, there is a really cool and interesting museum on the premises about the local regiment of soldiers through time, from medieval times through the world wars and even as recently as Korea and the Falkland Islands. The museum had an overwhelming number of artifacts, especially medals, which Erin found out when she tried to pull a drawer of medals out and it kept coming and coming and coming... so much so that she had to take many steps back to pull the drawer all the way out.
We grabbed lunch at a cute little café called the Jolly Sandwich in Enniskillan before hitting the road onto our destination for the night, Ballycastle, the town near the Giant's Causeway. We managed to make it there by about dinner time, and we had to find accommodation. It seemed like it was going to be a problem, but we talked to a woman in a bed and breakfast who called one of her friends who had a room free, and she gave us a good rate since the five of us crammed into a room meant for three people. It was actually quite humorous because we had 4 twin beds that we literally had to have right next to each other in order to fit, without an inch to spare; we felt like we were sleeping in one giant bed.
Anyway, we went out for a quick bite to eat and met a fellow Dubliner in the restaurant named Gino (who met up with us again in Dublin for Jesse’s birthday later in the week). He was travelling on his own, so we invited him out to the pub with us. That was just the beginning of our meeting of Irish people for the night! The locals at the pub were so nice, they just came up and began talking to us right away, and we had some interesting conversations about the changes in Northern Ireland in the last 10 years, the economy, the election in the states and what life is like in a little town like Ballycastle. We also inquired as to why all of the girls thought it was appropriate to wear little sundresses when it was easily in the lower 40's, plus wind chill, to which we got the hilarious reply, "oh, I just noticed that you all are all bundled up! This is warm for us," and a shrug and a laugh. We made our way back to the B&B for a few hours of sleep and had an early breakfast- a traditional Irish fully fry! It was quite good: sausages, ham, eggs, fresh soda bread, baked beans, a potato pancake, and lovely coffee and tea. It was enough calories in one meal for a full day, but the hiking/walking that we did later on certainly helped to burn it off!
After breakfast, we piled into the car and drove the 20 or so kilometres to the Giant's Causeway, stopping along the way to take photos of the cliffs jutting out into the sea, and, for a lucky minute, a rainbow right over the ocean. The weather was so perfect—blustery but clear and completely sunny. The kind of day where a bracing walk outside makes the wind feel wonderful on your face, but you still need a scarf and gloves... and sunglasses!
The Giant's Causeway was an amazing attraction. It is a formation of thousands upon thousands of hexagonal basalt rock columns formed by some ancient volcanic activity. There is only one other place like it in the world, and that is the counterpart across the sea in Scotland! So anyway, when we got there we set off for a few kilometre long cliff walk above the actual rock formation. The walk was so beautiful, and took forever, considering the numbers of photographs we were taking (posted on Snapfish). So we walked along the cliffs for a bit, then down a narrow staircase to the end of the formation to see something called the Smoke Stacks and the Amphitheatre, and then we made our way back along the cliff bases towards the main rock formations. It was so cool! You could clamor all over the columns, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Anyone who is thinking about coming to Ireland should definitely add this to the list….right at the top!
After we finished, it began to rain (of course) but we made our way back up to the car and by the time we were halfway there, the rain had ceased. So that worked out fine, because the sun came right out again. We drove down the scenic seaside road to the ruins of a castle right on the cliffs where we walked around for a short bit, and then we drove into a seaside tourist town for a late, delicious lunch in a pub. Then it was back in the car for the more direct route home straight down the East Coast of the country to Dublin. It was an extremely fun weekend!
Siobhan led us to the outskirts of Dublin where we stopped briefly for a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Where did we stop, you ask? A modern, clean and cheap café called McDonalds. Yes, dear friends, we stopped at a McDonalds that was really lovely and actually looked like a decent restaurant. After this we drove out of Dublin and through lovely country roads, and just past the town of Virginia (no lie!) we found a little place where we decided to take a scenic detour. Our detour took us to Lough Rammer, a lovely lake in the heart of the Irish countryside. Well, to be clear, the lake itself was lovely, but the shore where we stopped to look was anything but—it was littered with the remnants of many a day spent fishing: beer cans, empty bags of crisps and the like. However, the tranquility of the fishermen and the nice surrounding wooded area (not so littered with trash as the shore) made the lake a worthwhile detour.
Our detour to Lough Rammer didn’t really put us off schedule, and we made it to our first destination, Enniskillan, right around when we wanted to, approximately 2pm. Our destination in tiny Enniskillan was the castle. And what an underwhelming castle it is at first! There is only on old “castle looking” building. However, there is a really cool and interesting museum on the premises about the local regiment of soldiers through time, from medieval times through the world wars and even as recently as Korea and the Falkland Islands. The museum had an overwhelming number of artifacts, especially medals, which Erin found out when she tried to pull a drawer of medals out and it kept coming and coming and coming... so much so that she had to take many steps back to pull the drawer all the way out.
We grabbed lunch at a cute little café called the Jolly Sandwich in Enniskillan before hitting the road onto our destination for the night, Ballycastle, the town near the Giant's Causeway. We managed to make it there by about dinner time, and we had to find accommodation. It seemed like it was going to be a problem, but we talked to a woman in a bed and breakfast who called one of her friends who had a room free, and she gave us a good rate since the five of us crammed into a room meant for three people. It was actually quite humorous because we had 4 twin beds that we literally had to have right next to each other in order to fit, without an inch to spare; we felt like we were sleeping in one giant bed.
Anyway, we went out for a quick bite to eat and met a fellow Dubliner in the restaurant named Gino (who met up with us again in Dublin for Jesse’s birthday later in the week). He was travelling on his own, so we invited him out to the pub with us. That was just the beginning of our meeting of Irish people for the night! The locals at the pub were so nice, they just came up and began talking to us right away, and we had some interesting conversations about the changes in Northern Ireland in the last 10 years, the economy, the election in the states and what life is like in a little town like Ballycastle. We also inquired as to why all of the girls thought it was appropriate to wear little sundresses when it was easily in the lower 40's, plus wind chill, to which we got the hilarious reply, "oh, I just noticed that you all are all bundled up! This is warm for us," and a shrug and a laugh. We made our way back to the B&B for a few hours of sleep and had an early breakfast- a traditional Irish fully fry! It was quite good: sausages, ham, eggs, fresh soda bread, baked beans, a potato pancake, and lovely coffee and tea. It was enough calories in one meal for a full day, but the hiking/walking that we did later on certainly helped to burn it off!
After breakfast, we piled into the car and drove the 20 or so kilometres to the Giant's Causeway, stopping along the way to take photos of the cliffs jutting out into the sea, and, for a lucky minute, a rainbow right over the ocean. The weather was so perfect—blustery but clear and completely sunny. The kind of day where a bracing walk outside makes the wind feel wonderful on your face, but you still need a scarf and gloves... and sunglasses!
The Giant's Causeway was an amazing attraction. It is a formation of thousands upon thousands of hexagonal basalt rock columns formed by some ancient volcanic activity. There is only one other place like it in the world, and that is the counterpart across the sea in Scotland! So anyway, when we got there we set off for a few kilometre long cliff walk above the actual rock formation. The walk was so beautiful, and took forever, considering the numbers of photographs we were taking (posted on Snapfish). So we walked along the cliffs for a bit, then down a narrow staircase to the end of the formation to see something called the Smoke Stacks and the Amphitheatre, and then we made our way back along the cliff bases towards the main rock formations. It was so cool! You could clamor all over the columns, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Anyone who is thinking about coming to Ireland should definitely add this to the list….right at the top!
After we finished, it began to rain (of course) but we made our way back up to the car and by the time we were halfway there, the rain had ceased. So that worked out fine, because the sun came right out again. We drove down the scenic seaside road to the ruins of a castle right on the cliffs where we walked around for a short bit, and then we drove into a seaside tourist town for a late, delicious lunch in a pub. Then it was back in the car for the more direct route home straight down the East Coast of the country to Dublin. It was an extremely fun weekend!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
'Allo, I'm an Immigrant
After a beautiful sunny day on Saturday spent walking around the city, we were astounded to wake up on Sunday to another sunny and pleasant day. As the sun doesn’t often shine for multiple days in a row, we decided to take advantage of our day off. After fighting our way against the current of thick crowds headed towards the local stadium (we still aren’t sure what sport it is… some kind of Gaelic soccer or rugby type game), we took a train called the DART to a cute coastal town called Greystones. There is a cliff walk about 7 km along the coastline of the Irish Sea that leads from Greystones to the town of Bray along beautiful rocky shores. It was perfect because it was warm outside, but the sun was hidden behind the clouds so it wasn’t hot either. After about an hour and a half, we made it to Brey and rewarded ourselves with ice cream on the beach. Pictures are up on Snapfish. (Try this link- http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/share/p=684251222346605306/l=121548294/g=144240205/cobrandOid=1007/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB)
Upon returning to Dublin, we were pretty exhausted and went to sleep early to prepare for our first full work week. Sarah is working at UCD (University College Dublin) as a personal assistant to the vice president of research at the university. The job has a lot more responsibility than she anticipated, but she thinks it will be a good experience since she has never worked in an office before. Erin is temping for an insurance company as a typist on a week to week basis—keep your fingers crossed that it lasts for a while! Erica is working as a receptionist at Abbey Court Hostel on Bachelor’s Quay (right on the river). It’s a great feeling to finally be settled and be able to enjoy and relax when we’re not working!
Upon returning to Dublin, we were pretty exhausted and went to sleep early to prepare for our first full work week. Sarah is working at UCD (University College Dublin) as a personal assistant to the vice president of research at the university. The job has a lot more responsibility than she anticipated, but she thinks it will be a good experience since she has never worked in an office before. Erin is temping for an insurance company as a typist on a week to week basis—keep your fingers crossed that it lasts for a while! Erica is working as a receptionist at Abbey Court Hostel on Bachelor’s Quay (right on the river). It’s a great feeling to finally be settled and be able to enjoy and relax when we’re not working!
Mummified Animals With No Admission Fee
Well, the weekend brought with it a number of interesting opportunities, as weekends ought to. Friday afternoon, as Sarah and I sighed in simultaneous relief for the end of the workweek (we’re not sure how you office people do it….but I guess we better get used to the 9-5 schedule….) and Erica completed her first day at her new job, we were fortunate enough to discover that it was Culture Night in lovely Dublin-town. Culture Night, we were delighted to find, meant that almost all of the city’s cultural attractions were free for the night, and open late (until 11pm).
We began Culture Night by wandering to a kebab house, Momo’s (haha), for a quick and satisfying dinner before making our way over the Liffey to the other side of town….the dreaded Southside (for those of you out of the loop, there is a bit of a rivalry between the North Side and the South Side, and we live on the North Side, so hence the animosity….). We decided first to try to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. Despite the fact that you were supposed to have a ticket to get in (they were free, but you were still supposed to get one), Erica talked us past the guard and we were able to take our free tour of the museum dedicated to the manuscript that was created sometime in the early 9th century. The Book of Kells certainly did not disappoint. It was beautiful and old and intriguing…..everything that you would want in a 1000-some year-old illuminated manuscript. The tour also included a visit to the famous Long Room of the Trinity College Library, which houses about 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. Picture the Library from “Beauty and the Beast” and you might get an idea for the feel of the Long Room. As many of you can guess, all three of us bookworms could barely resist jumping the ropes that kept visitors from the shelves and grabbing as many of the old books as we could get our grubby hands on.
We made our way from Trinity College down Dame Street to Christchurch Cathedral (about a 10 minute walk). It was begun in about 1030 and has been a spot for continued worship since then, though the building has been changed many times over the years. The structure was quite imposing, but the coolest parts of our exploration of the church was the crypt. Down there we saw sarcophagi, a display about the objects used in worship (silver spoons and so forth), an interesting little aside about King William III (go Tribe!) and a mummified cat and rat. If you stopped short on that last bit, so did we. Apparently the cat was chasing the rat around the church in the mid 1800’s and they both got caught in the pipe of the organ, where they were mummified. Pretty morbid, but also pretty hilarious (see picture below).
St. Patrick’s Cathedral was the last spot for our Culture Night tour of Dublin. A church has stood on the spot of St.Pat’s since the 5th Century, but the current structure was built in the early 13th century. It is the largest church in the entire country, and it was pretty impressive. Especially at night. There is something about going into a church at night that is both spooky and impressive—probably because it is not the normal time that you see them. It was quite an enjoyable experience.
that rat is scarily huge...
We began Culture Night by wandering to a kebab house, Momo’s (haha), for a quick and satisfying dinner before making our way over the Liffey to the other side of town….the dreaded Southside (for those of you out of the loop, there is a bit of a rivalry between the North Side and the South Side, and we live on the North Side, so hence the animosity….). We decided first to try to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. Despite the fact that you were supposed to have a ticket to get in (they were free, but you were still supposed to get one), Erica talked us past the guard and we were able to take our free tour of the museum dedicated to the manuscript that was created sometime in the early 9th century. The Book of Kells certainly did not disappoint. It was beautiful and old and intriguing…..everything that you would want in a 1000-some year-old illuminated manuscript. The tour also included a visit to the famous Long Room of the Trinity College Library, which houses about 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. Picture the Library from “Beauty and the Beast” and you might get an idea for the feel of the Long Room. As many of you can guess, all three of us bookworms could barely resist jumping the ropes that kept visitors from the shelves and grabbing as many of the old books as we could get our grubby hands on.
We made our way from Trinity College down Dame Street to Christchurch Cathedral (about a 10 minute walk). It was begun in about 1030 and has been a spot for continued worship since then, though the building has been changed many times over the years. The structure was quite imposing, but the coolest parts of our exploration of the church was the crypt. Down there we saw sarcophagi, a display about the objects used in worship (silver spoons and so forth), an interesting little aside about King William III (go Tribe!) and a mummified cat and rat. If you stopped short on that last bit, so did we. Apparently the cat was chasing the rat around the church in the mid 1800’s and they both got caught in the pipe of the organ, where they were mummified. Pretty morbid, but also pretty hilarious (see picture below).
St. Patrick’s Cathedral was the last spot for our Culture Night tour of Dublin. A church has stood on the spot of St.Pat’s since the 5th Century, but the current structure was built in the early 13th century. It is the largest church in the entire country, and it was pretty impressive. Especially at night. There is something about going into a church at night that is both spooky and impressive—probably because it is not the normal time that you see them. It was quite an enjoyable experience.
that rat is scarily huge...
Monday, September 15, 2008
Americans Love Castles
A brief recap of the last week: we still have no jobs. To give ourselves some credit, we’ve had a couple trials (which is a common thing to do here, it’s like a test run to see how you do) that didn’t go especially well, and we’ve had some temp assignments… not the most thrilling but at least it’s a little bit of money coming in. Ultimately though, we still don’t have anything permanent, but have some promising interviews this week. Fingers crossed!
So now we’re all moved in. Besides the mold throughout the room, the leak in our entrance, the freezing cold showers and room, the kitchen being constantly messy, and not having a key to our entrance, everything’s “sound” (as the Irish say). In reality, it’s not actually too bad, and we’ve met some cool people so far. There’s:
-Stephanie, the laid-back Belgium girl
-Andrea, the German Chemistry student (who, when we invited her to see Trim Castle with us, grunted and said, “Americans love castles!”)
-Wellington, a chatty Brazilian who sings when he cooks
-13 Spaniards
-David, the South African groundskeeper who lives across the hall from us
-a few others that pass through who we haven’t gotten to know yet
One night we all hung out and had a characteristic scene out of a movie (L’auberge Espagnol for those of you who’ve seen it) where we all drank and had a guitar sing-a-long. It’s been fun so far and seems to be a good atmosphere where everyone gets along.
Yesterday we went to Trim Castle, about a 45 minute bus ride Northwest of Dublin. It’s the largest and oldest castle in Ireland from the 12th Century! We wandered around the grounds and took a tour of the castle where we got to go up on the roof and see some pretty views. Apparently a lot of the movie Braveheart was filmed on the grounds, which is strange considering the movie takes place in Scotland, but cool nonetheless. It was really awesome to see the castle and it actually didn’t rain until we had finished the tour, which was pretty lucky. Afterwards we walked around the sleepy town (which took about 5 minutes, and nothing was open because it was Sunday), so we got some coffee and then took shelter in a nice hotel while we waited for our bus to arrive. Pictures are up on Snapfish of the weekend!
So now we’re all moved in. Besides the mold throughout the room, the leak in our entrance, the freezing cold showers and room, the kitchen being constantly messy, and not having a key to our entrance, everything’s “sound” (as the Irish say). In reality, it’s not actually too bad, and we’ve met some cool people so far. There’s:
-Stephanie, the laid-back Belgium girl
-Andrea, the German Chemistry student (who, when we invited her to see Trim Castle with us, grunted and said, “Americans love castles!”)
-Wellington, a chatty Brazilian who sings when he cooks
-13 Spaniards
-David, the South African groundskeeper who lives across the hall from us
-a few others that pass through who we haven’t gotten to know yet
One night we all hung out and had a characteristic scene out of a movie (L’auberge Espagnol for those of you who’ve seen it) where we all drank and had a guitar sing-a-long. It’s been fun so far and seems to be a good atmosphere where everyone gets along.
Yesterday we went to Trim Castle, about a 45 minute bus ride Northwest of Dublin. It’s the largest and oldest castle in Ireland from the 12th Century! We wandered around the grounds and took a tour of the castle where we got to go up on the roof and see some pretty views. Apparently a lot of the movie Braveheart was filmed on the grounds, which is strange considering the movie takes place in Scotland, but cool nonetheless. It was really awesome to see the castle and it actually didn’t rain until we had finished the tour, which was pretty lucky. Afterwards we walked around the sleepy town (which took about 5 minutes, and nothing was open because it was Sunday), so we got some coffee and then took shelter in a nice hotel while we waited for our bus to arrive. Pictures are up on Snapfish of the weekend!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
video and picture links
We have uploaded our first video! At the moment we don't have internet at our house so it may be a couple weeks before we add more videos, but here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Fdl4JlCbQ
We've also uploaded our first set of pictures! Check it out:
http://www3.snapfish.ie/share/p=146101221052416042/l=121532585/g=144240205/cobrandOid=1023/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
If the link doesn't work, just ask one of us to email you the link directly from our account :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Fdl4JlCbQ
We've also uploaded our first set of pictures! Check it out:
http://www3.snapfish.ie/share/p=146101221052416042/l=121532585/g=144240205/cobrandOid=1023/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
If the link doesn't work, just ask one of us to email you the link directly from our account :)
"Ahhhh, Qwerty!"
After searching the internet, newspapers, and posting boards for places to live, we finally decided on a house- an amazing feat for 3 very indecisive people! It’s not at all what we had imagined, but after debating for an hour over a pint of Guinness we finally made a decision. It’s a newly renovated house at the top of O’Connell St. in north Dublin, one of the most famous streets in the city. It’s a 4 story house that’s kind of like a hostel because its rooms are rented on a weekly basis, so people from all over the world can stay there for any length of time and there’s a common living area and kitchen. However, we got a pretty sweet deal because our room is in the basement and we have our own bathroom, entrance and kitchenette, so if the kitchen is ever really full we have our own space to cook in. We’re pretty excited because it’s in a great location, and we can meet random people who are coming and going from the city. We move in Monday!
We’ve had some interesting and fun times meeting people so far. One night we went out for a couple drinks in Temple Bar, a touristy district with lots of pubs. The 3 of us were sitting at a bar in the second floor of this place called the Gogarty, which has a yellow façade and all of these international flags on the outside of the building. They had live music playing, so it seemed like a pretty cool place to have a pint. Little did we factor in Rory and his very drunk friend. Rory was a construction worker who gave us his business card and told us repeatedly to get out of the hostel as quick as we can, and not to work at McDonalds because they pay pennies. After not leaving us alone for 20 minutes, we made up an excuse and escaped down the stairs to a new, safe location.
Though we did meet some weirdoes, there have also been some cool people, such as our new French friend Camille. Erica and Erin had gone from the hostel where we were staying down the road to the grocery store to buy a pack of beer (Tesco brand—they even have “bobo brand” beer here!). Erin was waiting outside the store because she didn’t have her id with her (they sometimes card us here—we think that it is because of our American accents…discrimination!) and Erica started talking to Camille in line. He was also buying beer. We started walking back to the hostel, and lo and behold, he was staying in the same one!
We hung out with Camille for a few hours, and we talked about everything from the American Civil War and current Presidential election to the advantages and disadvantages of Guinness. We also instantly made him our facebook friend! When he logged onto Erica’s computer to accept our facebook friend requests, he exclaimed “Ah, Qwerty!”, much to our surprise. Apparently the American keyboard is called (slang, we’re assuming) Qwerty because it starts with QWERTY instead of AZERTY. We had no idea what he was talking about. It was pretty funny.
The last night in our hostel we went into our new room (long story short: we had to change rooms because our reservation got messed up) and ran into two German guys, Franz and Hans. We started talking with them and ended up staying in our room chatting with them for five hours! They were super nice and really funny guys who made up erupt into hysterics countless times. Their English was great for the most part, but a few times their intended meanings got lost in translation, making for some comical imagery. For example: when Franz said he likes to read historical romance novels (imagine Fabio in the 16th Century), or that his mother would have us over to eat for dinner, or asking us if we brought traditional American clothing with us (would the American equivalent to a German lederhosen be colonial garb?). The next morning we walked around the city for a couple hours with them, but then they had to go to the airport to return to Germany. They actually live in Bavaria near Munich and told us to come to Oktoberfest to meet up with them, which we would love to do. It probably wont work out because Oktoberfest starts really soon and it would probably cost too much money to plan last minute, but hopefully we will see them again one day.
We’ve had some interesting and fun times meeting people so far. One night we went out for a couple drinks in Temple Bar, a touristy district with lots of pubs. The 3 of us were sitting at a bar in the second floor of this place called the Gogarty, which has a yellow façade and all of these international flags on the outside of the building. They had live music playing, so it seemed like a pretty cool place to have a pint. Little did we factor in Rory and his very drunk friend. Rory was a construction worker who gave us his business card and told us repeatedly to get out of the hostel as quick as we can, and not to work at McDonalds because they pay pennies. After not leaving us alone for 20 minutes, we made up an excuse and escaped down the stairs to a new, safe location.
Though we did meet some weirdoes, there have also been some cool people, such as our new French friend Camille. Erica and Erin had gone from the hostel where we were staying down the road to the grocery store to buy a pack of beer (Tesco brand—they even have “bobo brand” beer here!). Erin was waiting outside the store because she didn’t have her id with her (they sometimes card us here—we think that it is because of our American accents…discrimination!) and Erica started talking to Camille in line. He was also buying beer. We started walking back to the hostel, and lo and behold, he was staying in the same one!
We hung out with Camille for a few hours, and we talked about everything from the American Civil War and current Presidential election to the advantages and disadvantages of Guinness. We also instantly made him our facebook friend! When he logged onto Erica’s computer to accept our facebook friend requests, he exclaimed “Ah, Qwerty!”, much to our surprise. Apparently the American keyboard is called (slang, we’re assuming) Qwerty because it starts with QWERTY instead of AZERTY. We had no idea what he was talking about. It was pretty funny.
The last night in our hostel we went into our new room (long story short: we had to change rooms because our reservation got messed up) and ran into two German guys, Franz and Hans. We started talking with them and ended up staying in our room chatting with them for five hours! They were super nice and really funny guys who made up erupt into hysterics countless times. Their English was great for the most part, but a few times their intended meanings got lost in translation, making for some comical imagery. For example: when Franz said he likes to read historical romance novels (imagine Fabio in the 16th Century), or that his mother would have us over to eat for dinner, or asking us if we brought traditional American clothing with us (would the American equivalent to a German lederhosen be colonial garb?). The next morning we walked around the city for a couple hours with them, but then they had to go to the airport to return to Germany. They actually live in Bavaria near Munich and told us to come to Oktoberfest to meet up with them, which we would love to do. It probably wont work out because Oktoberfest starts really soon and it would probably cost too much money to plan last minute, but hopefully we will see them again one day.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Razor razor vs. St. Conor
After 12 hours of sleep, we felt refreshed and went to our BUNAC orientation in the morning. For those of you who don't know, BUNAC is the program who helped us get our work visas and at orientation they told us everything we need to know about finding jobs, house hunting, taxes, mobile phones, basically anything you can think of. The girls who work there are really nice and are there to help us if we ever need advice (and we have definitely already taken them up on that as one girl gave all of us resume advice).
The last few days have been an epic journey of ups and downs to find a job and a house. We've mostly split up to hit the streets and drop off our resumes ("CVs") to different places. Erin and Sarah are mostly looking for restaurant jobs so far, while Erica has been trying to get hired as a hotel receptionist. We've all also applied to jobs online, but unfortunately none of us have heard back from anywhere yet. However, Erin and Sarah both applied to a temp agency and have interviews with them early next week, so fingers crossed that we do well because those jobs are supposed to pay pretty good. The interview is supposed to consist of a computer skills test that a monkey could pass, so we should be ok.
Housing has been a bit stressful. As a group of 3, our options are very limited. Dublin is divided into the north and south by the Liffey River, and most of the touristy things are in the south, meaning that we'll probably live in the north because it's cheaper. First we went to a 3 bedroom house (2 twins, 1 single) owned by a funny Irishman named Conor (who we later nicknamed "St. Conor") and the house was really cute and nice. But, the biggest problem was that it was located about an hour walk from the city center, and we want to be about half that distance. Regrettably, we had to decline. Today we looked at another house owned by a guy named Ray (whose email was razor razor) and when we got there only 2 of the 3 beds were left, so that was pretty much a wasted trip. We've sent a lot of emails and made a bunch of phone calls, and at the moment only have 1 lead. On the way to look at it, we got stuck in the rain and were completely soaked from head to toe by the time we got home. It didn't help that we missed our turn and walked about 30 mins out of the way. Anyway, it's a 2 bedroom house, and we would have a triple ensuite room. The rent is pretty good because it has everything included (utilities, laundry, internet) and is in a cute neighborhood about a 25-30 min walk of the city center. The biggest negative is that it's an extremely small house, and we don't know who the other 2 roommates will be yet (which could potentially be a positive, but it's hard to say). At the moment this place looks the most promising, but we have until Monday to decide so will spend the weekend looking at other options. If nothing works out, we may have to face the possibility of splitting up and all living on our own, but we're hoping it won't come down to that.
We were just talking to some French guys in the hostel, and they showed us this link that can only speak for itself. As a preface, it's supposedly the hippest dance in French nightclubs at the moment called "Yelle".
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/yelle/video/x2oflu_exclu-yelle-acdg-tepr-remix-alterna_music
The last few days have been an epic journey of ups and downs to find a job and a house. We've mostly split up to hit the streets and drop off our resumes ("CVs") to different places. Erin and Sarah are mostly looking for restaurant jobs so far, while Erica has been trying to get hired as a hotel receptionist. We've all also applied to jobs online, but unfortunately none of us have heard back from anywhere yet. However, Erin and Sarah both applied to a temp agency and have interviews with them early next week, so fingers crossed that we do well because those jobs are supposed to pay pretty good. The interview is supposed to consist of a computer skills test that a monkey could pass, so we should be ok.
Housing has been a bit stressful. As a group of 3, our options are very limited. Dublin is divided into the north and south by the Liffey River, and most of the touristy things are in the south, meaning that we'll probably live in the north because it's cheaper. First we went to a 3 bedroom house (2 twins, 1 single) owned by a funny Irishman named Conor (who we later nicknamed "St. Conor") and the house was really cute and nice. But, the biggest problem was that it was located about an hour walk from the city center, and we want to be about half that distance. Regrettably, we had to decline. Today we looked at another house owned by a guy named Ray (whose email was razor razor) and when we got there only 2 of the 3 beds were left, so that was pretty much a wasted trip. We've sent a lot of emails and made a bunch of phone calls, and at the moment only have 1 lead. On the way to look at it, we got stuck in the rain and were completely soaked from head to toe by the time we got home. It didn't help that we missed our turn and walked about 30 mins out of the way. Anyway, it's a 2 bedroom house, and we would have a triple ensuite room. The rent is pretty good because it has everything included (utilities, laundry, internet) and is in a cute neighborhood about a 25-30 min walk of the city center. The biggest negative is that it's an extremely small house, and we don't know who the other 2 roommates will be yet (which could potentially be a positive, but it's hard to say). At the moment this place looks the most promising, but we have until Monday to decide so will spend the weekend looking at other options. If nothing works out, we may have to face the possibility of splitting up and all living on our own, but we're hoping it won't come down to that.
We were just talking to some French guys in the hostel, and they showed us this link that can only speak for itself. As a preface, it's supposedly the hippest dance in French nightclubs at the moment called "Yelle".
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/yelle/video/x2oflu_exclu-yelle-acdg-tepr-remix-alterna_music
Huh, you travel light!
Hello everyone!
We're writing to you from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 8:30pm here, and we are enjoying a beer in the hostel lounge in Dublin. Living the good life!
The first few days here have been a whirlwind! The flight went smoothly enough. Erica, of course, slept the whole time, while me and Sarah suffered for the entire 7 hour flight trying to sleep and failing. We both hate her, consequently. But seriously, the flight was uneventful, and we made it to the airport early (a surprise, considering all of the recent troubles with flights in the US). Customs was fine, and we found our bags easily. That was about the only easy part of our baggage situation. The girls and I each came to Ireland with a huge backpacker's backpack, second bag and carry on. It was a ton of stuff! We looked like ridiculous pack mules in the airport. I think that some of the baggage workers in the airport were laughing at us. Actually, when Sarah and I went to the bathroom and Erica was guarding the baggage, a woman walked by her and commented, "huh, you travel light." Haha! She gets ridiculed because she had the good fortune of sleeping on the flight over :)
Getting to the city center from the airport via bus was simple enough, but getting from the bus to the hostel was a bit more difficult. With all of our baggage, and no map or idea where to go, we wandered around like lost leprechauns until someone on the street was nice enough to point us in the right direction. Did we mention that there are no street signs on some of the blocks, and that the streets that do have signs are posted inconveniently on buildings? But needless to say, we struggled the few blocks to our hostel, Abraham House, and checked in.
Free of our bags, we set out to explore the city that will be our home for the next 4 months. We started out strong, hitting St. Stephen's Green, Trinity College, Grafton Street, Temple Bar, St. Patrick's and Christ Church Cathedral, and meandering in between. But by about 2pm, running on no sleep, we were all falling asleep in our lunches. We forced ourselves to stay awake, though, and made it until 7pm before crashing. We managed to enjoy our first delicious pint of the black stuff before giving into oblivion, served to us by our now-favorite bartender, a man called Michael.
The weather, bizarrely, was quite sunny on arrival, a deceptive introduction to our life here in Ireland....
Erin, Erica and Sarah
We're writing to you from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 8:30pm here, and we are enjoying a beer in the hostel lounge in Dublin. Living the good life!
The first few days here have been a whirlwind! The flight went smoothly enough. Erica, of course, slept the whole time, while me and Sarah suffered for the entire 7 hour flight trying to sleep and failing. We both hate her, consequently. But seriously, the flight was uneventful, and we made it to the airport early (a surprise, considering all of the recent troubles with flights in the US). Customs was fine, and we found our bags easily. That was about the only easy part of our baggage situation. The girls and I each came to Ireland with a huge backpacker's backpack, second bag and carry on. It was a ton of stuff! We looked like ridiculous pack mules in the airport. I think that some of the baggage workers in the airport were laughing at us. Actually, when Sarah and I went to the bathroom and Erica was guarding the baggage, a woman walked by her and commented, "huh, you travel light." Haha! She gets ridiculed because she had the good fortune of sleeping on the flight over :)
Getting to the city center from the airport via bus was simple enough, but getting from the bus to the hostel was a bit more difficult. With all of our baggage, and no map or idea where to go, we wandered around like lost leprechauns until someone on the street was nice enough to point us in the right direction. Did we mention that there are no street signs on some of the blocks, and that the streets that do have signs are posted inconveniently on buildings? But needless to say, we struggled the few blocks to our hostel, Abraham House, and checked in.
Free of our bags, we set out to explore the city that will be our home for the next 4 months. We started out strong, hitting St. Stephen's Green, Trinity College, Grafton Street, Temple Bar, St. Patrick's and Christ Church Cathedral, and meandering in between. But by about 2pm, running on no sleep, we were all falling asleep in our lunches. We forced ourselves to stay awake, though, and made it until 7pm before crashing. We managed to enjoy our first delicious pint of the black stuff before giving into oblivion, served to us by our now-favorite bartender, a man called Michael.
The weather, bizarrely, was quite sunny on arrival, a deceptive introduction to our life here in Ireland....
Erin, Erica and Sarah
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Leavin' on a Jet Plane
Hello to all of our friends and family out there! It is midnight the night before we are set to leave the United States for parts known and unknown, and all three of us are very, very excited. Though I can only speak for myself, I believe that Erica and Sarah would echo me in saying that we are going to miss you all over the next 10+ months, and we hope that you will all keep safe, happy, and in touch!
It is extremely surreal to have this day finally arrive. Many months ago, the girls and I decided that we wanted to travel after graduation...either on a cross-country road trip or abroad. While we seriously considered the road trip, with gas prices soaring and only Erica's car as transportation, we decided against that plan (though I still have a soft spot for the idea...). Thus, we were left with the other option: traveling abroad. Though we considered other options, such as teaching English in the Czech Republic or Thailand, or traveling to Australia, plans for the Ireland trip fell into place with surprising ease; thus, we are off to the land of rainbows, leprchauns and Guinness. The fact that the three of us just decided to move to Europe and then actually did it....wow. That certainly means that 1) we are adults, in some semblance of the word and 2) the three of us can actually decide on something more important than what kind of cereal to buy (and there were certainly some discussions about that when we were living in Williamsburg, haha)! Hopefully Ireland is ready for the insane posse of Erica, Erin and Sarah.
All three of us will be using this blog to post information about our trip and our goings-on, so for the sake of clarity, we'll try to sign the post so that you know which one of us is writing. Please check back regularly, and keep us updated on what is going on in your lives....we'd love to hear about it! Now I must get to bed.... it's an early morning wake-up call for me tomorrow, with a drive to DC and a flight to Ireland! Wish us luck!
Erin
It is extremely surreal to have this day finally arrive. Many months ago, the girls and I decided that we wanted to travel after graduation...either on a cross-country road trip or abroad. While we seriously considered the road trip, with gas prices soaring and only Erica's car as transportation, we decided against that plan (though I still have a soft spot for the idea...). Thus, we were left with the other option: traveling abroad. Though we considered other options, such as teaching English in the Czech Republic or Thailand, or traveling to Australia, plans for the Ireland trip fell into place with surprising ease; thus, we are off to the land of rainbows, leprchauns and Guinness. The fact that the three of us just decided to move to Europe and then actually did it....wow. That certainly means that 1) we are adults, in some semblance of the word and 2) the three of us can actually decide on something more important than what kind of cereal to buy (and there were certainly some discussions about that when we were living in Williamsburg, haha)! Hopefully Ireland is ready for the insane posse of Erica, Erin and Sarah.
All three of us will be using this blog to post information about our trip and our goings-on, so for the sake of clarity, we'll try to sign the post so that you know which one of us is writing. Please check back regularly, and keep us updated on what is going on in your lives....we'd love to hear about it! Now I must get to bed.... it's an early morning wake-up call for me tomorrow, with a drive to DC and a flight to Ireland! Wish us luck!
Erin
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