Northern Ireland

Hello! Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve blogged last. Be prepared, this will be a long one!

This past weekend was spent in Northern Ireland! Last Wednesday, after our Theology and History classes, we left in the afternoon and drove towards Derry/Londonderry (it’s mostly called Londonderry in Northern Ireland, and Derry in the Republic). After a brief stop at W.B. Yeats’ grave in a small graveyard on the way, we arrived in Derry after about a 4.5 hour drive. There was no distinct border or any major sign indicating that we had crossed over into the UK. Some of the differences I noticed was that signs said miles per hour instead of kilometers per hour, we paid using the pound instead of the euro, and overall things seemed more modern and British and little less typically Irish, especially the architecture.

After checking in at the Derry Independent Hostel, we walked a ways to a restaurant where our dinner was already paid for by our program fee, and we had delicious beef and Guinness stew and Bailey’s cheesecake. It was nice to walk around after the long bus ride and get acquainted with Derry for the first time. It was fun being in a bigger city than any of the towns we’ve visited recently. That night, some of the group checked out a couple of pubs, and one of them, O’Donnell’s, was the quintessential Irish pub that I would picture in my head before coming to Ireland. It was loud and packed full of people, there was a wide range of ages present, and there was traditional Irish music being played by a couple of men in the front corner of the pub.

The next day at the Derry Tower Museum, we were given a great tour form “Gerry from Derry”. It was a good overview of general Irish history that we have been learning so far, and also more specifically about the history of Derry.  I most enjoyed the last part of the museum, which focused on the events leading up to the Troubles. It amazes me how I can hear about these things all weekend, but still feel confused about how exactly these conflicts came to be because the issue is complex and goes back so far into Irish history it seems. In the afternoon we visited the Free Derry Museum, which was one of my favorite stops on the trip because there was so much information packed into a tiny, simple museum, and it was very moving. Being so close to where events like Bloody Sunday actually happened made it even more meaningful. One of the most shocking things I learned was how long the British government denied the stories of the victims of Bloody Sundays and lied about what actually happened, and how it was just in 2010 that the official statement was released stating the fault of the government in those events. Following the exhibit, we were given a walking tour of the Free Derry area and the walls of the city by a man named Martin, who was an excellent tour guide. His stories about the different murals depicting the events of the Troubles were very moving, and he is a great example of an Irish storyteller. These events are something the people of Northern Ireland are so passionate about and that clearly affect their lives a great deal even today. The fact that people like Martin have so much hope for a peaceful future despite the times of violence that they have just recently lived through is really inspiring to see.

That day, September 22nd, is “Arthur’s Day”, celebrating the birthday of Arthur Guiness (and also David Simmet’s birthday too!) Following our tour, the whole group went to a pub to celebrate with a Guinness.

Friday morning, we moved on from Derry to the capital city of Belfast. On the way we stopped at the Bushmills Distillery, were we got a tour and saw how whisky is made. At the end of the tour we got a sample, and it was not my favorite, but it’s cool to see how things are made so we all enjoyed the tour. Our next stop was the beautiful Giants Causeway, and area along the coast composed of 40,000 basalt columns packed closely together forming a sort of stepping stone path out to the sea. They were formed by a volcanic eruption over 60 million years ago. 

After walking around the main area, a smaller group of us decided to walk further down the path to see a few more sights. We took a different path back to the bus, and it was much steeper and we climbed a ton of steps to reach the top of the path, where there was an amazing view. 

As I was standing sort of near the edge of a cliff, one of the guys came up behind me and grabbed me to scare me. I was really not too close to the edge so I wasn't in danger at all of actually falling off, but in my fright I reached out to steady myself and planted my hand in a thorn bush. My hand started bleeding and I have about 10 little slivers in my fingers, but it feels fine now! When we neared the end of the path, we found out that due to high fences and construction of the new visitors center there, we couldn’t actually reach the bus. We were running late, and our program director walked out to find us trapped up on a cliff behind this fence, yelling for us to hurry up. We though we would have to go all the way back around the way we came, which would have probably taken 45 minutes, with our whole group waiting on the bus. Luckily, we found a break in the fence, and this is what followed:

One of the guys so kindly documented our near-death experience for us

After only a few falls and many grass stains, we made it back to the bus in under 10 minutes.

We finally arrived in Belfast early Friday evening.  The next morning we were given a bus tour of the city, with our guide named Collin. We saw Belfast Castle, City Hall, the Parliament building, the childhood home of C.S. Lewis, the shipyard where the Titanic was built, and some other interesting sites.

Belfast Castle

Belfast City Hall

The most educational part of this tour was when we were stopped outside of the wall of murals and Collin was talking to a group of us about Belfast, the Troubles, and how things was changed over the years. It was shocking when he said that not long ago, it would not have been safe to drive our bus down that very street we were standing on. I knew that the Troubles were called “the Troubles” for a reason, but I didn’t realize how violent of a time those thirty years really were until this excursion. It was cool when he said we are here currently in Ireland’s most peaceful time ever, since it has basically always had some sort of conflict going on throughout history. The “peace wall” between the Protestant and Catholic communities was also amazing to me. I couldn’t believe how tall the wall is, and that it is still there today. It will be really interesting to see if any plans move forward to bring the wall down in the future. Overall, I learned a lot in Derry and Belfast, and actually being there in the areas where so much conflict occurred, talking to the people, and seeing the murals and memorials made it all more meaningful.

The peace wall 

We had a long day on the bus on Sunday, and after stopping at the National Irish Famine Museum on the way, and our weekly grocery-shopping trip, we arrived back in Spiddal around 6pm. As fun as all of these excursions have been, I’m so happy to be staying put in Spiddal/Galway for over two weeks now.

This past week has been busy with class, a paper due, walks into town, a traditional Irish music and dance show called Trad on the Prom on Monday night which was a lot of fun, and last night our cottage was invited to a delicious dinner at our program directors’ cottage. Two and a half hours were spent at the immigration office in Galway this morning, getting approval to stay in Ireland past the end of this month, which is when our passports were originally stamped for. The boys of cottage 5 have invited over our cottage for dinner tonight, and we’ve heard this is the first time they’re cooking a real meal in the time we’ve been here, so it should be interesting. Luckily, one of my roommates is currently baking apple crisp to bring along, so we know at least we’ll have that!

Tomorrow marks the end of our first month in Ireland. I can’t believe how much we’ve done in a month, and how quickly we have gotten used to our new home. Anytime anyone brings up the end of the semester we have to quickly change the subject because it’s already too sad thinking about the end. Luckily there is a long time still before then! I hope things are good with all of you at home, and thank you for the all of the nice comments I’ve received through my parents or by email about the blog!

County Kerry

This past weekend we had a wonderful excursion to County Kerry, where I saw some of the most beautiful sites that I have seen in Ireland so far. We left on Thursday morning and arrived in the town of Killarney around noon. After stopping at a pub for lunch, we continued on and toured Muckross Castle. The castle is best known for hosting Queen Victoria on her state visit to Ireland, and they prepared for six years for year two night stay, going bankrupt in the process. After checking into our hostel, we went to the grocery store to get some things to make dinner, and later on we checked out a couple of pubs. 

On Friday we toured the Ring of Kerry, a beautiful drive along the coast with a lot of scenic overlooks. Our first stop with the Skellig Experiece, where we watched a video about the Skellig Islands and looked at an exhibit. I wish we could have actually visited the Islands, where a monastery was founded on the steep cliffs in the 6th century, and the small huts that the monks lived in remain there still. But we were told that the water conditions have made it difficult to access the islands in the past few weeks, so we had to settle for the exhibit instead. We continued on to the small town of Waterville where I had some delicious fish and chips for lunch. We stopped at some scenic overlooks next, which were some incredible views- for sure some of the most beautiful in Ireland so far. We stopped at an old ring fort briefly, and then drove through Kerry National Park on our way back to Killarney.

On Saturday we started out the day by driving to Tralee and visiting the Kerry County Museum, which I thought was great. I loved the black and white photography exhibit about life in the county in the 1940s and 50s. We started driving on the Dingle Peninsula, and in the town of Dingle we stopped and almost all of the group ate at Murphy’s Pub and then walked around the pretty harbor area for awhile. As we continued driving, the roads began getting narrower and narrower, and soon we were driving  next to some steep cliffs with barely and space between our bus and the drop-off. It was pretty nerve-wracking for a little while! We came upon a beach and stopped for awhile- I think it was maybe one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It really was breathtaking, as cheesy as that sounds, and the weather was perfect for the time we were there. I wish I could have spent an entire day there at that beach. After a few more stops along the Dingle Peninsula, we drove back to Tralee, and after dinner at a pub that most of the group ended up at by chance, we went to Mass at St. John’s church, which was beautiful on the inside. It was a very quick service, and the congregation really sped through all of the prayers and responses, everyone going at their own quick pace instead of saying it all together. And the communion experience was even more chaotic than the one at the church in Spiddal. I really don’t understand that process, it seems to have no rhyme or reason at all to it. When it's time to go up to communion, everyone just stands up at once and makes their way to the front of the church all at once. After Mass we walked to Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theater of Ireland, where we saw the show Oilean, about the people of the Blasket Islands. The traditonal music and dancing was beautiful, and I think we all enjoyed the show more than we expected we were going to. 

On Sunday morning we toured Ross Castle, a castle from the 1500s which was really interesting. We spent a lot of time on the bus today, including a ferry ride that the bus drove right on to- an interesting experience, especially because there was a horse freaking out in the trailer right next to us that was rocking back and forth. After a lot more driving, we finally arrived at the Cliffs of Moher in the late afternoon. These are the cliffs that people picture when they think of Ireland, and they were very impressive. None of the pictures I took could really capture the size and scale of the cliffs. 

I really enjoyed this weekend excursion a lot, but we were all excited to finally get back to Spiddal late Sunday evening. This week we only are here for three nights, and are off again tomorrow morning for our trip to Northern Ireland! 

Soap Opera Surprise

We had a very interesting afternoon at the Park Lodge today. We got a call from JP, one of the owners of the lodge, asking if we wanted to be extras in a soap opera that was being filmed in the ballroom of the lodge today. We were sort of skeptical as to what exactly was going on, but walked up there and sure enough, the cast and crew of the Irish show Ros na Rún was filming in the ballroom. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, and I literally had just rolled out of bed from a nap, but they put us to work as extras, sitting in the background pretending to talk to each other. The show is in Irish, not English, and all of the cast and crew were speaking Irish too, so it was a strange and very comical experience. We did understand when the director yelled "Action!" though, and had fun watching the behind the scenes workings of this TV show. We couldn't really tell what was going on in the plot except for that it was taking place at a ballroom dance class, and we were eventually asked to dance as participants in the class. I know I looked completely ridiculous, so I'm really glad the show is not aired in America (except for in the Boston area, we later found out!) After a while, they asked if we could change our clothes since they were moving on to a different episode, so we quick ran back to our cottage to change, laughing the whole time about how bizarre this experience was. Even though we ended up needing to stick around for over four hours, we had a lot of fun and the cast and crew were extremely nice and fun to talk to. The director invited us to come to the set sometime to be on the show again. She also let us know that this episode will be aired on November 8th, so a viewing party will definitely be in order to celebrate our Irish soap opera debut. 

The Weekend

This past weekend was our first of many group excursions. Saturday morning started off by meeting our Theology Br. Colman, who gave a short overview of the Theology course he will be teaching. We all got on the bus and headed to Kiltartan and Kilmacduah, two sites of  former monasteries that are now in ruins. Also at Kilmacduah was a round tower that was used by the monks to save their important books during raids. Next we went to an area called the Burren, where we saw the site of the hermitage where St. Columba started out from when we decided that providing hospitality to others would be a better way to use his gifts than being a hermit. St. Brigid’s well is located there as well. The Burren was a beautiful area with a really interesting landscape. Br. Colman suggested we walk back to the bus in silence in order to fully take in our surroundings, which was a very peaceful experience. After stopping at Monk's pub for the most delicious seafood chowder ever, we continued on to visit a monolithic Portal tomb, which is older than the Egyptian pyramids. That evening, after checking in to the "Jamaican Inn" in the little town of Six Mile Bridge and eating dinner, almost all of us walked to the local pub to hear some live music. The two men playing guitar and singing were really good, and played a fun mix of Irish and contemporary American music. Most of the group was tired and went back early, but a few of us stayed until they stopped playing, which was a wonderful decision, because the dancing was so much fun and our group had a great time. 

We spent the majority of the day on Sunday at Glenstal Abbey, where we attended Mass, were given a lecture on Celtic mythology, ate lunch in a castle that now houses a boarding school, toured the grounds, visited the monastery's icon chapel and saw some beautiful and detailed art, and heard stories from Br. Colman about the Abbey's rare book collection. I know that the idea of hearing a monk talk about rare books sounds extremely boring, but it is actually one of my favorite experiences I have had in Ireland so far. Br. Colman is a really great story teller, and our group was completely enthralled by his tales of how the Abbey acquired these books that are hundreds of years old, or other interesting ones like  Winston Churchill's history of WWII that actually has his initials written on the first page. 

Two recent Johnnie Alums are volunteering for a year at Glenstal Abbey, and came back on the bus with us to Spiddal for the night, with a guitar in tow. Just as I was about to go to bed around midnight I heard our phone ring (all the cottages have phones to make calls to the other cottages) and it was Cottage 5 inviting us over for a little impromptu guitar/singalong session. The rest of my cottagemates were asleep but I headed next door despite my tiredness, and because I have realized since being here that I have a fear of missing out on anything fun. Sitting around the fireplace, singing along and laughing was an excellent way to wrap up our second weekend in Ireland. 

Unfortunately, almost everyone in the group, including me, is sick now. Between the close quarters, cold weather, and many late nights, it was bound to happen. Hopefully we all start feeling better soon, because we are only around here for one more day before heading off on our next excursion on Thursday morning. 

First Week in Ireland

We have already been here one week! And it was a busy one. Here is what I have been up to:

• Settling into our cottage, which I love. Getting to know my roommates Ellen, Kelly, Sarah and Michelle, has been so much fun. We have cooked some "creative" meals with the ingredients that can fit in our tiny fridge, and our conversations and lots of laughter over meals is something I can already tell is going to be one of my favorite parts of this semester. 

(Don't you love the fancy dishes we were provided with?)

• On Friday, the day after everyone arrived, we were given a tour of Galway by a writer from the area that will be working with our class throughout the semester. He focused on the medieval history of Galway, and it is amazing how old many of the buildings in the city are.

• On Saturday we took a trip to the nearby Aran Islands. After taking a ferry to Inishmore, one of the islands, we all got bikes to ride around the island. When I first heard we would be biking, I assumed it would be some sort of guided bike tour, but instead we just got bikes and were off on our own. It was really fun because we could stop whenever we wanted if something looked interesting, and we got to explore on our own. The main historical site on the island is Dun Aengus, a fort that dates back to 900 BC, overlooking cliffs and the ocean. After checking out this area, a smaller group of us started to bike back. We must have missed a turn somewhere, because we ended up on a trail that was definitely not meant for bikes. We had a walk a lot of the way because it was steep and very rocky, but we made it to one of the highest points on the island, and the view was beautiful. The ride down was a little treacherous, but eventually we made it back to the harbor.

A lot of the group at a beach we came across 

(photo via Tommy O'Loughlin, an awesome photographer on our trip: http://olaughlintommy.blogspot.com/)

(another photo by Tommy)

• On Sunday the Irish Hurling finals took place. This event is the Irish equivalent to our Super Bowl, so it’s a big deal to a lot of people in the area. Hurling is a sport that is best described as a combination between lacrosse, football, rugby, and wrestling. It’s super intense. We saw one of the ref’s get his nose get broken, with blood everywhere, and that was just the ref! We all watched the game in the pub here at the Park Lodge. Kilkenny ended up beating Tipperary, which was a disappointment for the local fans. 

• Classes began this week, and so far I have had our Study Abroad Seminar class with our directors Mike and Jane Kathman, our History class with Dr. Laurence Marley, and Literature with Gerard O'Brian. We haven't had our Theology class yet. I think they are all going to very interesting. Instead of a traditional class meeting on Tuesday for Literature, we took a trip to Thoor Ballylee and Coole Park, where W.B. Yeats wrote a lot of his poetry. Our professor read us some of the poetry in the place it was written, which was a really unique experience. Coole Park was beautiful despite the rainy weather, which we are getting pretty used to by now after a week of rain!

Blue skies did appear for a little while!

• Slowly getting to know the city of Galway. Where we are living is closer to the small town of Spiddal than it is to Galway, so when we want to go into the city we need to take a bus or taxi, so it's not an everyday occurrence. But we have gone five out of the seven days we have been here, and have found some fun places to go. We've also checked out some of the local grocery stores and shopping areas, with a lot of other places on my mental list of things to check out. 

• Walks into Spiddal, which is about 30 minutes away on foot. It is a gorgeous walk with the ocean and rocky shore on one side, and cute homes and fields with cows and horses along the way. The town of Spiddal itself is really small, but there is a place to get groceries, some restaurants, a library, a church, and a harbor with little fishing boats in it. On Sunday morning, we walked into town for Mass (in the rain, of course). The church in Spiddal has the Mass in Gaelic, so we couldn't understand a word, but it was a cool experience. It's such an interesting language to listen to! Overall the Mass seemed very similar, except for during communion, when there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to how people stood up to walk to the front of the church. It was sort of a free-for-all. 

• Getting to know the group. I didn't know too many of the 29 Bennies and Johnnies on this trip before getting here, so it has been a lot of fun hanging out with everyone. I get to spend this semester with a lot of really fun people, and I can't wait to get to know everyone better in the next few months!

So a lot has happened in only one week, which is exciting. It actually feels like I have been here a lot longer, and am glad I have many weeks ahead of me here. Watch for another update after this weekend's trip to Limerick! 

Arriving in Spiddal

Hello All! I am writing to you from Cottage 6, my new home for the next few months at the Park Lodge in Spiddal, Ireland! A little update on the past week:

A week ago today, Erin and I arrived in Roma, where her parents and brother met us at the train station. They had just finished a trip around Italy, and ended their travels in Rome to meet up with us before going home. They generously got us a room at the hotel they were staying in, and it was so nice to sleep on a good bed and clean up in a nice shower after 18 days in hostels. Not the we were really roughing it during our trip, all of our hostels were very nice, but it was fun staying in a nice place for the last two nights. Our two days in Rome were sort of a whirlwind, so I am SO glad I have been there before and didn’t feel like I needed to cram a lot of sightseeing into the time we were there. It was great to catch up about our travels over a delicious Italian dinner. 

On Tuesday we walked to the nearby Spanish steps and Trevi Fountain. When I was there in 2008 on the trip through Hill-Murray, I would never have guessed that I would be back again so soon, even if it was just a brief visit. In the afternoon we went out to the neighborhood where Erin’s apartment for her time in Rome is located and waited until the designated move-in time. It was a lot a fun seeing some of the other Bennies and Johnnies from her program for a little while. We got a little tour of the apartment, which was incredible. Seriously, I’m jealous. It is huge, bright, has a balcony, wood floors, and a giant kitchen. Anyways, after that we said our goodbyes and were on our way! The remaining Lanz family and I got dinner, then I had the fun task of getting all my stuff re-organized for my flight the next day.

But now…I’m in IRELAND. I was nervous for my day of solo travel on Wednesday, but it all went really smoothly. I rode to the airport with the Lanz family in the morning, but their flight home to MN was out of a different terminal, so I was on my own from there. I was worried about carrying on both my little rolling suitcase and small backpack on the plane, since the Aer Lingus website is pretty specific about only being able to have one carry-on, but the really nice guy at the check-in counter told me that because he was very happy he would let me take both. There was a nice woman and her daughter from Dublin sitting next to me on the flight, and we chatted for awhile. Once I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I came back she goes, “I just have to ask you…” (it sounded like she was going to say something really serious) “what are bangs exactly?” She said they even looked it up online but could never figure it out. The daughter asked if bangs were the same things as “fringes”, and luckily I knew that fringes and bangs were indeed the same thing. I thought that was funny though. They also wanted to know what a “sophomore” was. After arriving in Dublin, I caught a bus to Galway, which was about a three hour ride, and then all that was left was the taxi ride to the Park Lodge Hotel in Spiddal, where we are living! The rest of our group wasn't arriving until the next day, but a few of us were here early and the staff made us a delicious meal for dinner.

The next day the few of us who were here early went in to Galway with our directors, Jane and Mike, to meet the rest of the group arriving at the bus station. And since then things have been busy! But I will fill you in on that soon, and for now here is a peak at my new home.

Cottage 6!

Dining area

Kitchen

My room

Front door/entryway 

It's pretty cozy and cute, and I'm so happy I will be spending the next few months living here! 

Cinque Terre

As much as we loved the Germany/Austria portion of our travels, we were so excited to move on to Italy. We had heard so many amazing things about Cinque Terre, and couldn’t wait to get there and experience it for ourselves. The trip from Salzburg to Monterosso was a long one. It tookfour different trains to get us there: Salzburg to Innsbruck, Innsbruck toVerona, Italy, Verona to Milan, and finally Milan to Monterosso. We hadn't figuredin a time change on the way to Milan, so we weren’t really expecting to get offthe train so soon. I heard an announcement (in Italian) about arriving in Milanso I told Erin we were getting off soon. She was telling me that we still had an hour left and I finally convinced her we needed to get off the train. Let’s just saywe’re lucky we hadn’t fallen asleep on the train like we so wanted to, or who knowswhere we would have ended up!

When we got to Monterossoit was dark, and finding our hotel was a challenge. It took awhile, but weeventually came upon a street that sounded like the right one. I noticed a manfurther down the street and asked if he knew where Hotel Souvenir was. He said“Keep walking…keep walking…keep walking…” (it was sort of creepy but we followedhim, not really sure what sort of trap this random guy was trying to lead usinto) but then he says “Welcome to Hotel Souvenir!!” So we made it, and foundour room. That first night was eventful. I’m not really sure what time it was,but I wake up and see Erin standing up near my bed. There had been a bunkbedthat I had slept in the bottom bed of, and she had been in a different bed bythe window. She said she had felt sort of itchy, and woke up, clicked on heriPad to see what time it was, and from the light of the iPad saw a ton ofbedbugs scurry away. They had been all over the bed. She was super grossed out,and I feel bad but I was sort of still asleep through all of this so I wasn’ttoo sympathetic, telling her to just sleep in the other bed (sorry Erin). Butthings worked out well, because when we checked in they told us we may have tochange rooms after the first night, which we did the next morning. It was muchnicer, and most importantly, bedbug free.

The following three days were perfect, consisting of beach,sun, good food, more sun, more beach, wine, the best pizza I’ve ever had,hiking, gelato, gorgeous views, and beautiful little towns along the coast.It was the perfect way to wind down our trip, and relax before we moved on tothe place we would be spending the semester.

On the second full day in Cinque Terre, we did the hikebetween the five towns. It was literally breathtaking at some points. We wereboth practically giddy with happiness to be experiencing these places. It was alittle surreal and dream-like.When we started the hike and bought our Cinque Terre card,they told us the trail between two of the towns, Corniglia and Manorola, wasclosed, but we could take a train in between or hike a different detour trail.Well, we wanted to say we hiked the whole thing, so we opted for the detour. Weshould have maybe guessed it would be a little challenging when we went forawhile without seeing any other hikers. Up until this point the hike was nottoo strenuous, but now it was the middle of the afternoon, we were sweatinglike crazy, and walking uphill for what felt like forever. The normal trailbetween Corniglia and Manorola is supposed to take about 45 minutes, but thistrail probably took over 2.5 hours. We were pretty exhausted by the end, butgot to see some cool things that the other hike doesn’t have, like this tieredvineyard on the side of the cliff. We maybe stole a few grapes (hey, there weremoments when we thought we were never going to see the end of this hike…) Buteventually we made it to the last town Riomaggorie, and took a train back toMonterosso, and ended the day with delicious pasta and wine.