Blarney Castle and Cork

So this past weekend, my friends and I went to Cork with the International Society. This trip, instead of taking 90 students, they took 150. We left around 9 Saturday morning and drove about 1.15 hrs to Blarney Castle. We had around 2 hours to wander and look around, which defiantly wasn't enough time to see everything, but we were able to see a lot. Erin and I hung out for most of the time there, but we eventually met up with the other girls. The first thing we did was walk around the castle and then eventually get in line to go up to the top. The walk up there was ridiculous and the stone spiral stairs kept getting narrower and narrower. There were a fair amount of other people there, but we didn't seem to have to wait in line for too long. Another part that helped was that the line goes through the inside of the castle so there were a lot of other things to look at.

Erin and I both kissed the Blarney stone, it wasn't as scary as I thought because there were metal poles that would prevent a person from falling all the way down, and there was a guy there that also held you to make sure you didn't fall. While doing it, there is a guy that takes 2 different pictures and in the end you can buy one for 10. Erin and I both bought out pictures and they came with a certificate, saying you actually did it.

Picture of the inside of the castle

Picture of the Inside of the Castle

Picture of the Dungeon

Kissing the Blarney stone
Blarney House

After we did that, we then started looking around the grounds and explored as much as we could in the allotted time. Around 1:30 we got back on the bus to go to Cork which was only 15 or 20 minutes away from Blarney Castle. When we got to Cork, we checked into the Hostel and were then wandered the city, ate lunch, dinner, and looked around a lot. We ended up eating pretty good burgers in Cork for a really late lunch/dinner. They were huge so around dinner time we weren't hungry anymore.

That night, they took all of us to a pub called the Brogue. It was probably intimidating for everyone else there, because around 9:30/10:00 about 100 foreigners all came in together.

The next day we were free to do what we wanted until 7pm. We were all pretty tired from the night before, so we sat outside and ate breakfast at a cafe and drank huge coffees and stayed there for a while. Afterwords we just wandered the city and then eventually met up with other friends to have dinner.

Overall Cork was okay. It wasn't as clean or as nice as Galway, so if I had a change to go back to Cork, I wouldn't. There seemed to be a lot of trash on the streets and teenagers were always out just hanging on the streets in big groups, parents worst nightmare! But overall, a good weekend :)

Galway, The Burren, Cliffs of Moher

On Saturday morning, we all woke up bright and early to meet the bus that was set to leave campus at 9am. After leaving, it was a little less than a 2 hour drive to Galway. When we got to Galway around 11am, we put our stuff down in the hostel (I shared a room with 5 other people, thankfully I knew and were friends with them all) and then we were free to wander the city until 7:30 when were suppose to meet back at the Hostel.

Erin, Lauren, Daly, Martina and I all stayed together in Galway. It was a beautiful day, so perfect to spend outside. We walked around for a long time just looking in different shops and taking pictures. We eventually ran into Stuart, who is the president of the International Society and he suggest we check out the beach that was about a 10 minute bus ride away. We decided to catch the next bus and check that out. There we we walked along the water on a sidewalk right above the sand. We found the National Aquarium and decided to go inside and look around that. They had a lot of huge fish there so it was pretty interesting.

The Aquarium from the outside

Big Eel

Two weird looking fish

After the aquarium we went up a few streets and looked at all the different shops that were here. After we had finished that, we all got back on the bus again to go back to the city center and eventually get dinner and meet back up at the hostel.

Later that night, the International Society had reserved a huge section of a pub that was about a 10 minute walk from the Hostel. We all were suppose to go to that pub first but then were free to go wherever we chose after that.

Erin and I at the pub

The next morning we had to wake up and be ready to leave by 10. This was a little hard for everyone since everyone had stayed out pretty late the night before, but somehow we were able to all get on the buses and leave on time. The first place the bus took us to was through the Burren. The ride was very bumpy and rickety and the roads were very narrow, especially considering we were on a huge tour bus.

Beautiful view

In the Burren

After that we stopped for lunch and then drove to the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs were amazing and totally unreal. Being on the edge, it was very windy. There were points while walking up the stairs where you felt like the wind was going to pick you up and take you away!

At the Cliffs of Moher

Me, Erin, Martina, and Lauren at the Cliffs

After all this, we arrived back to the hostel around 5:30pm and got on the second bus that would take us back to campus. There was some traffic and the buses were a little last so we didn't get back to campus until around 8:20pm. :)

Coming to Ireland, I have discovered Nutella. Everyone here eats it, and I have started to. And it is quite delicious. Something I will have to continue eating after I get back home.

Today I went to Immigration to get my equivalent of a green card. The girl I go to school with at home, Rebecca, had an appointment at the same time as I did so we went together. We took a bus in and got there about 45 minutes early but they let us go early. It was a really easy process, I got finger printed and had to pay €150, but in the end I have a card that looks like a drivers license and allows me to stay in the country until December 31.

After we did that, we went and got some lunch and then headed back to campus. Tonight, I made dinner with some friends, we made "mexican" and then hung out with them for a while.

Tomorrow I have a few classes, and then on Saturday morning I leave for the Galway trip! :)

Today was not as sunny as it has been recently, in fact, the sun only made on appearance today. So, today is what I would call a rather gloomy day. Today the only class I had was Irish Music, so it was a rather slow day.

A club I joined on campus, the International Society (a club for study abroad students and ERASMUS students {European exchange students}) planned a trip for this weekend to Galway, Burren, and the Cliffs of Moher. The trip is for Saturday and Sunday and the first day we're going to spend in Galway and then say in a hostel there, and then on Sunday we're taking a bus to Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. Since I'm a member of the club, the trip was majorly discounted to only 35€ for the whole weekend. There were only 90 spots open, 45 to study abroad and 45 to ERASMUS, but a lot of the American students didn't show up so my friends and I got on the trip no problem.

So that should be a lot of fun. :)

Lazy Sunday

The grass is just sooo green here! Its unbelievable!

Today was yet another beautiful day. The temperature and weather here has been unbelievable, I think today was day 4 without any rain. Since there is no rain, it's so nice to just go outside and walk around and enjoy the warmth of the sun.

Last night, I stayed in and hung out with one of my roommates Brittany. We watched a movie on TV and ordered Chinese food. It was nice to not have to cook, and considering I had basically run out of things to make besides pasta, it was a nice change. After that I stayed up for a while, but I caught up on my sleep because I didn't wake up this morning until about 1pm.

Today, Erin, Lauren, and Daly were all feeling better (hopefully it was just a 24 hr bug) we we all went grocery shopping at a local place called Dunnes. It's kind of like a grocery store and a Target or Walmart all put together. They not only have food, but also cloths and other things like that. Now that I've finally gotten into the swing of things, I was more aware of what I needed to buy to make real meals that aren't just pasta. We all had been eating a lot of pasta recently are are very sick of it.

Tomorrow I have two classes, the English class Romanticism and Sensibility at noon, and then Social Geography and 3pm. :)

Greetings from Ireland

So, I have been in Ireland now for 10 days. For the first few days it was rainy and "stereotypical" Ireland I suppose, but the past couple of days it has been beautiful. Sunny all day, no rain, probably low 70s.

The picture up here is one I took from the bridge that connects the campus.

Thus far I've gotten pretty well settled. There are still nights when I can't fall asleep until after 3am here, but luckily I haven't had any classes before 10 am. While here, I am going to be only taking four classes. At University of Limerick they do classes differently. Instead of just having lectures two times a week they also have "tutorials". Tutorials haven't started yet, so I'm still unsure of what they are. So instead of each class being 2hrs a week, classes are at least 3. The classes I'm taking are:

Irish Music
Social and Urban Geography
20th Century Irish Fiction
Sensibility and Romanticism

The last last two classes are both English classes. I've been going to class for one week now, and they all seem like they're going to be very interesting. Originally I was considering taking Gaelic, but in the end decided that it would be a better idea not to.

Some friends and I went on a bus tour the first weekend we got here, and I posted some pictures on flickr, there are also pictures of my room on this. Here's the link for that:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42324093@N04/

I will mostly be adding pictures to this and not on flickr.

On Thursday, it was such a nice day that my friend Lauren and I decided to look for an abandoned castle that is just on the edge of campus. We found it, and it turned out to be really cool, we even got brave enough to climb to the top. Both of which we would have never done if we hadn't heard from the local Irish students that it was pretty safe.


The Entrance to get there.


Our first view of the castle


Picture of the stairs we climbed


View from the top!

On weekends, almost every Irish students goes home to work or just spend time with their families, so it's very quite. Most people have been feeling a little sick recently, so today is going to be a very quite day :)