Paddy's Day, Blarney Castle, End of Classes!

Since the last time I wrote, I got to experience St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, go to Cork and kiss the Blarney Stone!  St. Patrick's Day (or Paddy's Day) was exactly what I was expecting in Ireland- lots of tourists dressed up in green and orange drinking lots of alcohol!  Since it's a national holiday, we didn't have class, along with the rest of the country.  The parade started at noon, but we headed down a little bit late only to find that we couldn't see anything anyways!  It reminded me of a parade on the 4th of July with lots of floats and all the Irish families together.  All the Americans stood out like a sore thumb, but we didn't care because we were having so much fun!

After the parade, we went to Eyre Square and hung out at some of our favorite pubs, which were PACKED!  It was nice to have a big group of friends to spend the day with, especially when some started to fade around dinner time.  After a day full of pub crawling, we headed to our friends house to relax for about an hour and then we were out again to more pubs.  We got to meet up with some of our other friends who weren't able to make it out with us during the day because they had visitors.  When all was said and done, I celebrated Paddy's Day in town for 13 hours straight!  It was an amazing experience and I'm so happy that I got to be in Galway for it.  Since Galway really is the culture capital of Ireland, I felt like I was really getting to see the proper celebration of the holiday and not a tourist-y one that might be in Dublin.

The next week was filled with lots of Fairfield visitors, as it was their Spring Break!  I got to see a bunch of familiar faces, but also got to meet some new Stags, which was nice!  One of my friends and her group of visitors had decided that they wanted to travel to Blarney to kiss the Blarney Stone and I decided to join!  We got to Cork on a Tuesday afternoon and explored the city a little bit- its bigger than Galway and has kind of a Greenwich Village vibe to it-- it was really cool!  Our hostel was attached to a pub so after we got some dinner and had a quick 20 minute rest, we went downstairs for a pint.  The pub, called the Bru Bar, was really small but very cool- we got to sit on comfy couches next to a fire!  It definitely made me feel right at home.  Then we were off on our adventure to find a reccomended pub called the Courthouse Tavern.  We thought the name sounded cool and had been talking about it all day so the build-up was huge!  When we finally found it, we got a pint and sat outside under the heated lights.  It was such a beautiful night and it was nice to get to know a new group of girls and get the update on whats going on at Fairfield.  We had to be up early the next morning, so we called it a night pretty early.

The next morning we were up at 7:45 to catch an early bus to Blarney, which is about 20 minutes outside of Cork.  We got to the Blarney Castle about 15 minutes after it opened, which was great because we didn't have to wait in line for anything!  I was only expecting a castle, but after walking into the park area, I was suprised to see such a gorgeous area!  The gardening and landscaping was so pretty.  We walked over little babbling brooks and through the dungeon area of the castle before we started our trek up to the top.  At the top of the tower, the view was amazing.  You could see the spread of the green of Ireland for miles (or kilometres?).  After admiring the sight, we got to kiss the Blarney Stone!  I was really nervous at first because it's so high up and you have to kind of lean back over the ground, but it all happened so quickly that I felt silly afterwards.  After kissing the stone, we walked around the grounds and saw the poison garden, that has a bunch of poisoneous plants with descriptions on them.  Then we walked to the Blarney House, which was absolutely beautiful.  Its an old house with an expansive backyard.  It was so pretty that all the girls were saying that they wanted to get married there!

After we finished wandering around, we decided to get some lunch.  At this point I wasn't really feeling well- my throat was starting to hurt, I felt a little dizzy and was just really exhausted.  Turns out- I ended up getting a sinus infection and an infection in my throat.  It was my first sinus infection, and it was terrible!  I got the antibiotics I needed from the pharmacy, but now I know how painful they are!  Anyways- we made it back to Galway safely that day in time for everybody to go out!

The rest of that week was the usual- going to classes and enjoying the nightlife.  That Thursday, it was my friend Aoife's 18th birthday so they had a house party at her house.  It was SO much fun- one of the best nights since I've been in Galway.  It was so nice to have all of my best friends together under one roof celebrating an exciting event!  I got to meet a lot of new people to and some of our friends played the guitar as we all sang along.  Its definitely a night I will always remember.

The celebration continued when we visited Aoife at her home in Kildare on Saturday to celebrate her actual birthday with her family.  It was such an exciting experience to be in a real Irish home and meet Aoife's entire family- her grandma was so cute!  The homecooked meals were also something that I had greatly missed, so it was great to have such delicious food!  That night we went to the pub down the road from Aoife's house.  It was so cute- very small town Ireland where everybody knew everybody. Most of the people were even related!  It was also a nice break from the expensive prices in Galway- we got lots of good deals on Bulmers!

Our friend Ciara also lives in Kildare, so the next day we got to see her house.  Her family has a bunch of cows and I had been dying to meet them.  It was so much fun to walk around her backyard and feed the cows!  We got to meet Ciara's parents too and they also cooked us another delicious meal!  In the afternoon, her brother sang us the song he did for the talent show, which was AMAZING and our friends played a little bit more on the guitar (They even learned how to play Rebecca Black's "Friday").  After such a relaxing weekend, it was hard to say bye to the countryside but we had to get back to Galway.  The next week (last week) was the last week of classes, but I didn't attend a lot of them because I felt absolutely terrible.  Towards the end of the week, my antibiotics started to kick in and I was feeling better so I made it to a few classes at the end.

On Friday, a group of us went to see a Connacht Rugby game.  They were playing Edinburgh right in Galway, so it was easy to get to and not too expensive!  Seeing a rugby game live was a really nice experience to have with the other Fairfield rugby girls.  Its such a big part of our lives back in CT, so it was nice to be able to watch a game and have a little taste of home!

On Saturday, we went to a silent disco at a pub called the Roisin Dubh.  Basically, there are 2 DJs and the only way you can hear music is if you wear the headphones provided.  You can flip back and forth between the different DJs.  Most of the time it was really funny because if you took your headphones off, people would be singing the words to songs, but there was no music.  I'd been wanting to go to one for a really long time so it was exciting to finally make it there!  I would definitely go back again.

Now that classes are over, I've been doing a lot of work before I leave on my big travelling adventure!  So far I've handed in three papers, but I still have two to write before I leave on Sunday morning.  After those papers, I won't have any school work until my final on May 10th so I will get to enjoy exploring Europe!  My friend Ania and I are backpacking around the continent for 3.5 weeks, starting in Edinburgh, to visit her friend, Zuzu.  Zuzu is joining us as we go to Amsterdam, and then its just the two of us going to Berlin, Krakow, Prague, Florence, Rome, and Paris.  I'm a little bit nervous to be travelling for such a long amount of time, but I'm sure I will be so tired and having so much fun that I won't realize how fast the time is going by!

Kissing the Blarney Stone!

View from the top of the Blarney Castle

Blarney House

All of the girls at the Connacht Rugby Match

Silent Disco at the Roisin

Paddy's Day

"The Americans" with the cows

Feeding the cows!

Visit from my Mom! Dublin, RAG Week and Friends from Firenze!

I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to update the blog.  I can't believe I haven't written here since London!  Since London, my mom has come to visit, I've taken a trip to Dublin and I've had friends studying in Florence come to visit as well!

My mom came to Galway on Feb 17th after having a long, overextended journey from Philadelphia.  Her flight was on time and running smoothly until about 2.5 hours into the flight when the pilot realized that the "de-icer" wasn't working.  This meant that the plane had to turn around and go back to Philly.  After this meaningless 5 hour flight, my mom took another 6 hour flight into Dublin, took a bus to Galway and SOMEHOW we figured out how to be in the same place in the same time without any communication.  Its funny how things like that work out!  After the plane disaster, I think everything else ran smoothly (or smooth enough at least).  The first day my mom was here, we walked around Galway while I tried (unsuccessfully) to set up a bank account in Ireland to avoid the international fees that have been killing me since January!  After we realized that we didn't have the right paper to open the account, we decided to do a little shopping and have tea and food at one of my favorite places- Griffins Bakery!  My mom loved it as well and decided that it was almost like a fairytale.  After this, we went to see Galway Bay and the Claddagh, some of Galway's most famous places.  After this, my mom cooked dinner for my friends and I which was SO delicious and much needed.  It was nice to have a home cooked meal after I've been making pasta and cooking microwavable meals for the past few months.

The next day we woke up to go to the Cliffs of Moher, which was gorgeous as always!  It was nice to go with my mom instead of friends for a change and I think she really enjoyed it.  I don't know how you can't enjoy it!  It's gorgeous!  After we got back from our tour, we had another home cooked meal :) and then we went to see Kings Speech in the "cinema."  I wasn't especially excited to see it because I hadn't heard anything about it but it was amazing!  So good and I didn't want it to end!  After the movie, we went to bed so that we could get up early to go to the Aran Islands the next day.  After taking a bus and a ferry to Inishmore, the biggest island, we decided to rent bikes for the day.  It was beautiful and so much fun riding around the island, even though some of the hills were a little more than I bargained for!  That is, until it started DOWNPOURING!! We had ridden 2 hours away from the starting point when it started raining and after eating our lunches under our umbrellas, we realized that we would have to bike back in the rain!  The actual biking wasn't too bad-  I wasn't thinking about anything else except trying to get back into dry shelter!  By the time we got back to where we started, we were absolutely drenched.  We tried drying ourselves off in the bathroom to no avail and we shamelessly took a seat in one of the only restaurants open, sopping ourselves into their dry booths.  Somehow we managed to stay positive and just kept laughing about how good of a story it makes.

After taking showers and drying off, we decided to go out for one last hurray in Galway.  We went to my favorite pub, The Skeff and enjoyed a few drinks, included Baby Guiness shots which are Kahlua and Baileys on the top, to make it look like a pint of Guiness!

The next morning, my mom woke up early to take a cab into town and to catch a bus to go to the airport.  Even though it was a short trip, it was definitely a fun one!  I was so glad that I was able to show my mom my house, my room and my favorite city!  She got to see how I live and experience the culture like I do.  It was also so nice to have her here and to spend some much needed time with her!

The next weekend I went to Dublin with two of my friends.  We went on a pub crawl and went on one of the free walking tours of the city.  On Sunday we went shopping.  Dublin is a really nice city, but I think its best for a weekend visit.  I was definitely happy to come back to Galway and enjoy (what I think is) the more cultural city of Ireland.  I just felt like Dublin was very globalized and that it could be found in almost any country in the world!  Galway definitely belongs in Ireland and thats why I love it so much!

The next week in Galway is called RAG week, which stands for Raise A Grand.  It started as a week of raising money for charity, but eventually has turned into a crazy week for the college students to drink all day and all night.  Gort, where I live, was especially crazy this year with several student-made fires and glass bottles being shattered everywhere!  It got so crazy, that they had to hire security 24/7 and put up gates.  Only residents were allowed in, which is never the case.  It was a fun excuse to go out and have a good time without having to worry about classes, but when it was over, I was definitely happy!

In the middle of RAG week, a few friends studying in Florence came to visit.  Sam and Rachael, two of my best friends from Fairfield arrived on Wednesday at 3 AM.  I happened to be out in town so I picked them up at the bus station as they arrived.  The timing couldn't have worked out any more perfectly!  On Thursday we woke up and I showed them around Galway.  Thursday night, I, of course, took them to the Skeff where we met up with the other girls from Fairfield and we all had a good time!  It was so nice to be able to go out with Rachael and Sam and show them the pubs that I've told them lots about!  Friday, they went to the Cliffs of Moher and loved it!  That night, my friend Ania and I made up our own Galway Pub Crawl for them.  We started off at Taffes, which has traditional Irish music.  Then we moved onto the Kings Head, which has cover bands of current music and also classic rock.  After that we went to the Quays, which is one of the more famous pubs in Galway.  It was far too crowded so we ended up at the Skeff again.  Rachael and Sam had tons of fun dancing with Ania's friend, Zuzu, but Ania and I were exhausted.  We decided to be boring and just sit and talk while our friends had a great time on the dance floor.

The next day, we woke up for an Irish breakfast made by Ania's housemate.  It was so delicious!  We had bacon, sausage, white pudding, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and bread.  Yum!  I hadn't had one yet and Sam and Rachael wanted to try an Irish breakfast before they left, so it was so great that it was homemade and that we could enjoy it with all everybody!  After that we went back and took a nap and then we decided to check out the weekend market in Galway.  We walked down to Galway Bay, took a few pictures and then had fish and chips from McDonoughs for dinner.  After dinner, we went back and got ready to go out for one last night!  We went over to our friend's house to hang out with everybody else from Fairfield, including other visitors from Florence and some from Barcelona, too!  It was definitely a packed house.  After that, we went to the Skeff and had an amazing and hilarious night.  The other Fairfield people left earlier, but Rae, Sam and I decided to stay at the Skeff because we were having such a fun time.  We met a group of men from Cork celebrating their friends Bachelor Party.  They were definitely entertaining.  Sam had a volatile relationship with the DJ and Rachael got to talking to one of the Bachelor Party members and he offered to buy us all drinks.  Seeing as it was about a 1/2 hour after last call, we all thought it was funny that he thought he would be able to get drinks.  He asked Rachael if whiskey shots were okay and Rachael responded with "yeah, sure" thinking there was no chance the bar would serve him.  Well- 10 minutes later, our friend comes back with 4 whiskey shots, which we all did together.  Even though we were all frightened to try it, it was fun to have that story to take away from it.

The next morning, we all woke up and took the bus to Dublin.  Rachael and Sam took the bus to the Dublin Airport and I took the bus into the city to meet my friend Erin Brookes, who was visiting her friend that was studying in Dublin.  We got lunch together, checked out Phoenix Park, did a little shoppnig and got a drink before I headed back to Galway.  I was a little apprehensive about going to Dublin, after the crazy week we had in Galway, but I was soo glad that I ended up going to see Erin.  She was so happy to be in Ireland and I was happy that I was able to be a part of her European Spring Break Adventure.

Wow- thats a lot of information, but that is basically what has happened the past 3 weeks for me.  I guess I should start updating more often so that the entries aren't massive!  Now for some pictures:

My Mom and I on the Burren Walking Tour

St. Stephen's Green in Dublin

Sam, Rachael, Me and our "favorite" DJ

Rachael, Sam and I with our Baby Guiness Shots

The Infamous Whiskey Shot Incident

Our First Trip Outside of Ireland: London!

Last weekend, my friends and I finally took our first trip outside of Ireland!  We landed in London on Friday morning, after almost missing my wake-up call!  From that moment forward, London was definitley an adventure.  After taking the bus to Shannon Airport and flying into London Gatwick Airport, we took another bus into the center of London.  We got lost for about an hour looking for our hostel, which (luckily) was in a really nice part of the city.  Our hostel was located on Queens Gate, which we soon found out is different than Queens Gate Terrace, Queens Gate Mews and about a million other streets with the name Queens Gate in it, but after walking for a little around we finally found our hostel!

The hostel was located across the street from the Natural History Museum, which is only 1 of London's many free museums.  Of course, we took advantage of the free entry and enjoyed walking around the museum for a couple of hours (Mom- I know you're so proud of me right now). Besides all of the cool stuff on the inside, the building itself was gorgeous.  Even just looking at the outside of the museum was awesome!

After the museum, we headed back to the hostel and got ready for our pub crawl!  We headed into the city around 7:30 and paid 12 pounds for the pub, which ended up being a great decision!  We got 4 drinks for free, as well as free entry into all of the bars/clubs that they took us to.  Apparently the last bar itself costs 15 pounds, so it was definitely a great deal!  We met some other Americans who are stationed in Germany with the Air Force and just had a great time checking out the nightlife of London.  We got home relatively early (around midnight) and had our first night in a hostel!

The next morning we got up, had some much needed (and missed!) Starbucks and headed on our way to a tour of London.  A company called Sandemans New Europe was the company that puts on both the pub crawl and the free tour that we went on.  Many of the other tours that were advertised were around 25 pounds, but with the free tour, the only fee you pay is to tip the tour guide.  We each gave him 5 pounds each, so it was definitely a money saver, and I could not say enough great things about the tour, itself!  We saw all of the important stuff- like 10 Downing Street, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, etc. and our tour guide was AMAZING- he was so knowledgable about the city but also very fun.  After the tour, which lasted 2.5 hours, we went to a restaurant where we were given a 25% discount as members of the tour.  Overall, I would highly reccomend doing the Sandemans free tour in all of the city's that it is offered!

After the tour, we went to Oxford Street, which is supposed to have great shopping.  It seemed like it would've been a lot of fun except for the crowds were way worse than Times Square or Fifth Avenue, even during Christmas season!  None of us bought anything, except for postcards and other small souvineers.  Next, we decided to check out Harrods, the famous department store that takes up an entire city block!  Besides the usual clothes and housewares, they have several different types of food (which all looked delicious!) and even a section dedicated to pets, where you could buy a dog bed for 650 pounds.  A little ridiculous to say the least.  After Harrods, we went back to our hostel for a little bit and showered/got some rest.  Then we met a few of my friends from highschool near Piccadilly Circus.  It was great to see a few familiar faces in a huge, foreign city!  After walking around for an hour or two, we found a delicious place to eat.  Most of us got sandwiches, and I got to catch up with my friends from Notre Dame.  After eating and taking the tube back to our hostel, we got in around 11ish and decided to call it a day so that we wouldn't be too tired for our 7:30 wake-up call the next day.

Overall, London was an amazing first trip!  Its close enough to Ireland that many of the things are still the same, but it was definitely a different experience than Galway has offered.  The city itself is just massive, so I definitley appreciated being back in Galway and knowing exactly where everything is.  Even though I had been to London before, it was nice to have more flexibility and see the things that I hadn't been able to experience the first time around when I went with my highschool.  Seeing the London nightlife and going to the Natural History Museum were a few of the new things I got to experience, and also definitely on the top of my list for the trip.

Being away and switching it up was great, but I was definitely happy to come back to my bed in Galway and feel comfortable with where I was in the world!

The Natural History Museum

Pub Crawl with Michela, KC, Jamie and one of the guides

Horse Guards Parade with the London Eye in the background

(They hope to make this where the 2012 Olympic beach volleyball will take place!)

Jamie and I in front of Big Ben

Kathleen, Kaitlin and I! Notre Dame 2008

Connemara and Cong!

Today I took a day trip to see Connemara and Cong!  Connemara is packed with beautiful sights and Cong is a little town on the way that is famous for being in the movie "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne.  After a late night out in the pubs, it was definitely a little difficult getting up at 9 am!  (I'm not sure I've been up that early since I've been in Galway!)  The early wake up call was well worth it.  I was blown away by the beautiful lakes, most particularly Loch Corrib, which seemed neverending!  We basically circled around the lake for the day and that alone took 8 hours!  The first stop we made during the tour was to the Ross Errily Friary, which I'm pretty sure is the oldest friary in Ireland.  It was huge and entirely made out of stone!  It was fun wandering around the friary and seeing all of its little nooks and crannys! The next stop was Cong, where we saw the village of Cong and Cong Abbey, which was much smaller than Ross Errily, but still very pretty.

After a few stops along the Loch Corrib and a couple of gorgeous pictures later, we made our way to Kylemore Abbey, which started out as a castle, but was later turned into an Abbey.  Even though we had to pay extra to be able to see everything, it was so worth it.  The Abbey itself was gorgeous and the inside was so ornately decorated.  It is set right on a lake with the mountains of Connemara as a view- definitely something I wouldn't mind waking up to!  With a stone-walled garden, a neo-gothic church and a few other sites on the surrounding land, Kylemore Abbey was definitely magnificant!

It's definitely lots of fun traveling around Ireland and seeing how different each part of the country is- and I've still only explored the West coast!  We're planning a trip to Dublin for the last weekend of February and hopefully I'll make a few more trips before then. 

Ross Eerily Abbey

In Cong, between two Counties! (Galway and Mayo)

Cong Abbey

The beautiful Loch Corrib

Connemara with Michela and KC

Kylemore Abbey

Mountains at Kylemore Abbey

Week 3!

Since I've been here, I've been having such a blast meeting loads of new people and getting to really understand the culture!  I'm really happy with where I ended up living (it was my first choice and thank goodness it worked out!).  It is mostly Irish students in my housing complex and it is set up townhouse style. I feel like I'm really getting the full experience- I've made tons of Irish friends, but I'm still able to keep in touch with my friends from Fairfield very easily!  We're a little bit further away from town, but my house is much homier than where most of the Fairfield students live and we have almost everything we need right down the road!

We've been keeping ourselves busy by going to classes, visiting the pubs and walking around town.  There are some things in Galway that never get old to look at!  I love walking down the cobble stones of Shop Street and listening to the street performers.  I could do it everyday and not get sick of it!  I can't wait to walk down to Galway Bay again and take a few pictures.  It really is a beautiful part of the world.

Yesterday was Australia day, and one of the pubs (The Skeff) has a lot of Australian staff so they were having a celebration there.  We decided to join in on the celebration a little bit- the place (one of our favorites) was decorated to a tee with fake grass and fake straw all around and tons of Australian flags!  It was kind of weird being Americans celebrating Australia Day in Ireland (so many cultures in one!), but it ended up being a great time as always!   Tonight we will probably head out to a few pubs again- its such a great place to meet new people and hear stories from all over the world.  Not to mention the live music!

One of the things I miss most about America are the restaurants that I'm used to!  Getting pizza over here is pretty expensive and they don't really have as much of a mix as I'm used to.  Going to the grocery store is always an interesting trip- I'm starting to learn what is good and what I should never even go near.  I've found a few good soups and a couple of frozen meals that are good, but our freezer is so small that its hard to plan ahead!  Although, last night a few friends came over and we (aka they) cooked a delicious salmon meal with pasta!  I was in heaven.  Tonight I will be making microwavable Chicken Pot Pie.  Not everything can be perfect, right?

Me with my roommate, Emma

Classes!

While I'm in Galway, I have to take 6 classes in order to get the required amount of credits for Fairfield.  Classes meet either once a week (for two hours) or twice a week (one hour each).  Usually lectures classes meet two different times a week while seminars meet once.  Lectures are super big, especially compared to Fairfield classes and seminars are usually about 20 people big and are more intense with discussion, etc.

The classes I'm taking while I'm here are:
Northern Ireland: Politics of a Divided Society
The Development of the Castle in Midieval Europe
The Welfare State
Introduction to Practical Ethics
Coastal Environments
Women in Irish Society

I've been to each class and everything seems to be great, it'll just take a little bit of getting used to!

Arriving in Galway!

On January 4th, I flw out of Philadelphia International Airport to land in Brussels, Belgium and then flew from Brussels to Dublin, took a bus from Dublin to Galway and then a taxi from Galway to my new home in Gort na Coiribe!  After a long journey, my ears still hadn't popped and I was exhausted, lonely, jet lagged and without my main bag of luggage.  Needless to say, I was feeling a little homesick when I first arrived in Galway.  I moved in on a Wednesday, while my Irish roommates did not move in until Sunday night.  I slowly started to make Gort my home, by putting away clothes (after my luggage finally arrived!), buying a bedspread and eventually, throwing stuff everywhere.  It looked just like my room at home, or at Fairfield.

The first night we decided to explore the nightlife in Galway, which was not hard to find!  It seems as though there are pubs everywhere you turn.  When we went to Taffe's one night, my friends and I met a girl named Jamie, who ended up living in the same housing complex as me, which was nice since I didn't know anybody else that lived there.  We decided to walk home together and since then have figured out our classes, made plans for a few trips across Europe and hung out a ton.  After a few days in Galway, I realized I wasn't feel well, so I decided to go to the doctors where I was diagnosed with strep throat and put on antibiotics.  A couple of days and dozens of hours of sleep later, I found myself feeling good as new!  We met a new friend named Ania, I introduced Jamie and Ania to all of my Fairfield friends.  I feel like I've been new a ton of new people everyday, which was one of the things I was most excited about during my study abroad experience.  Its so interesting meeting people from different parts of the world and listening to them talk about thier difference life experiences.

I couldn't be loving it here more- the views are beautiful (even the walk to school!), the people are so nice and the culture is charming.  I can't believe I actually get to live here for 5 months!  My roommates are super nice- I live with four other girls from Ireland.  One is from County Galway and the other three are from County Clare, which is only an hour away.  All of the Irish students go home on the weekend which is nice, because its a lot quieter but it's also a little weird with Gort being so empty!  I guess I will eventually get used to it.

On Sunday, Fairfield organized a trip for us to see the Cliffs of Moher, which were just beautiful.  I had seen them before, but this time they were even more spectacular.  I can't wait to travel more around Ireland and the rest of Europe!

Now it's time to get ready to go to the pubs, but I should have another update soon about my classes and everything.

Walk to School

Me, Emily and Emmy at the Cliffs of Moher

Sitting On the Edge of the Cliffs!