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| I'm back from my last trip around Ireland  I left on Tuesday and got back Friday night with Sera, YAY! I went to Cork, Blarney, Kilkenny, and Dublin and had fun and got frustrated with the buses.
On Tuesday morning I left bright and early for Cork! After a few hours on the bus, I wandered around the city a bit. It was nice and festive, and I looked through the shopping districts and had coffee in a lovely market that reminded me a little of Reading Terminal Market. After the wandering, I caught a bus out to Blarney! The castle and grounds were absolutely AMAZING. The castle was just how I imagined it to be- huge, imposing, and moss-covered. You have to climb very windy, slippery, narrow steps to get to the top, and that was a little unnerving. Then the Blarney stone is on the top- to kiss it, you have to lean over backwards off the paraphet while someone holds your legs so you don't slip! It was a little frightening, but now I must have the gift of gab!
I spent that night in a hostel in Cork, hanging out with some french girls and studying...ugh. The next morning I took off bright and early for Kilkenny! It was an absolutely lovely town, even though it poured the whole time I was there. I saw Kilkenny castle, which was beautiful and has been restored on the inside. I also went to see St. Candice's cathedral, which was very old and still very beautiful. There were plenty of crafts to see and stores to browse in, it was a nice day on the town. That night I also spent in a hostel, hanging out at studying. The next morning I was up bright and early to catch a bus into Dublin.
Unfortunately, because it was one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the city, traffic was horrible and I never made it out to Glendalough. I did have fun exploring more of dublin though- I went to see the Chester Beatty Library, which displays rare books and religious articles. It was amazing! I saw a gospel from 150 AD and beautiful books from China and Japan. After that, I went to the Dublin Writer's Museum, which filled me in a lot on writers in Ireland that aren't contemporary (my poetry class was on contemporary poets, so now i feel more well-rounded). Because it gets dark at 4 nowadays, I didn't linger in the city and went back to see Mena and Leo again!
I had a lovely time in the Clarke household, it was nice to see everyone again and feel so welcome. The next morning I was up bright and early to meet Sera in Dublin airport! After she got in and we made it into the city center, we went down to Trinity College to look around, and went in to see the Book of Kells again! After that, we walked down grafton street and saw St. Stephen's Green, then went into the National History Museum and the National Gallery- we saw tons of amazing history of ireland in the first, and some beautiful works in the second (like vermeer's woman writing a letter, which i love). We were all museumed out, so we then went to take a look at Dublin Castle, and then walked around Temple Bar before catching a bus back to Galway.
We slept in a bit on Saturday, then went into town where I showed Sera all of Galway's finest- we did a little shopping, then walked by the bay and watched the sun set! It was lovely  We made ourselved Indian for dinner- YUM- and then Drew and Eric came over, and we all went out with my roommates a little later. We went to a couple of bars and a club (a very late night) and had LOTS of fun. I was so sorry to see her go this morning!
Showing Sera around made me realize how much I'm going to miss Galway. Although I can't wait to get home and see all of my loves again, I will miss Ireland. It was nice to see more of it before I go home. 5 more days!!! | | |
| HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!
This weekend was a chance to take a break from all of that silly work and have some good old American fun- I love thanksgiving! We actually had two thanksgiving dinners- one on thursday in my appartment, and another on friday over in 62. Both involved good food, good friends, and good fun
On Thursday, we started nice and early with the cooking- I had actually made a cake and cookies for dessert the night before. Kelly did most of the cooking, including all of the stuffing starting at 8 AM and both of the turkeys. After a long day of mixed cooking, cleaning and paper writing (YAY i even finished a paper) it was time to chow down! We had about 14 guests there including the 5 of us who live here...among the thanksgiving virgins were terry's ed and tara's michael and his friends, irish eefa (excuse the spelling of that name), and our flatmate sara. The food was excellent, and of course the night ended in some flip cup and beer pong...we are american college students, what did you expect? After a few games we head downtown to the King's Head, where there was plenty of good craic. We stayed out pretty late, and Sara, Terry, Ed, Eefa and I all went to Bar 903 for some dancing as well. And of course, two highlights of the evening: thanksgiving call from mikhail, and getting my whole family including grandmother and aunt lizanne on speakerphone.
The next night was another great one- this time it was a 26-person thanksgiving dinner in 62 including three turkeys and many, many entrees. We were all crammed into many tables and, at Kyle's request, all named something we were thankful for before eating. There was SO MUCH good food and I was utterly stuffed by the end of the evening. Best turkey award goes to greg, best dessert to eric's mom, best entree to kate's carrot souflee, and best chocolate turkeys goes to terry.
That was about it for our thanksgiving weekend, good times, good times. Now just a week to complete 5 more papers, so I'd better get back to work. Happy thanksgiving everyone!
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| And now, to write about my last travel weekend before the finals crunch that my life will be the next three weeks (my last week of classes is next week...i just LOVE ireland!). Last weekend I was in London, visiting Springfield native and AP Bio girl (bio girls do it best...) Kathryn! We had so much fun!
I arrived on Friday afternoon, and after seeing her appartment in a very nice area of London, we went out to dinner with her friends Kerry and Brian at Wagamama's, an absolutely delicious noodle bar. After that we went to see Richard II, starring none other than Kevin Spacey! He was so powerful, he commanded the entire stage and completely stepped into the character. I absolutely love Shakespeare, and it was in a modern setting which (I thought) was a very interesting way to do it. It was a great night!
The next day we were tourists all day :) We started with the tour of the Tower of London, which was very interesting. The tour guides are the tower guards, called Beefeaters (they don't know why) and ours, Dickie, was hilarious. He told us all kinds of stories as he showed us around and I learned the origins of lots of nursery rhymes. We also saw the Crown Jewels (with the largest diamond in the world!) and they were spectacular. It was definately the best tour we could have picked.
After the tour Kathryn took me on her own little sightseeing tour of London, including the Tower Bridge, the Globe Theater, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and some other things I'm probably forgetting. Also, I was there on Remembrance Day (their kind of Memorial Day), so we saw a huge parade and fireworks that evening. SO fun! And that night, Kathryn and I went out to a couple bars with some of her friends, so we got to enjoy the London nightlife as well!
Finally, on Sunday before I had to catch my flight home, we went to find Abbey Road! I was so excited, of course we took pictures, and I even wrote a little note on the wall outside the recording studio. As one final London trip, we went to find Portabello Road, with the antique market featured in 'Bedknobs and Broomstics'- ah, childhood memories. Then I had to get on my flight home, so we said a very sad goodbye.
I really loved my time in London, I had a lot of fun with Kathryn! It was nice to see an old friend and remember good times in Springfield. She was an excellent tour guide, and she's one of the many people that I can't wait to see over break! | | |
| Another weekend trip to write about! 
Last weekend I went to Donegal with the NUIG Kayaking Club! It was a blast- we stayed within view of the ocean, in very nice vacation homes. It was, as predicted, a weekend of heavy partying, and I learned just how crazy these Irish kids can get. It was also almost all Irish students, which was really nice. (I love you Americans, but I also love the accents...)
The kayaking itself was CRAZY. It was so much fun, we went down rapids in a river, and several small drops. I was very proud that I never fell out, seeing as I've absorbed half the Corrib River in most of the lessons. It was a great rush, and I'd really like to do it again. Unfortunately, the waves were too big to go surfing the next day, but I defiantely got a taste of it that I won't forget.
And now, it's another week of classes and paper-writing. This weekend I'm going to LONDON to see KATHRYN! I'm very excited for that, it'll nicely round off my weekend travels before some very intensive finals work over the rest of the month. Did I mention that I only have 2.5 weeks of classes left? Yeah, Ireland rocks. | | |
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