A Wonderful Week

The past week has been one of the best in Ireland so far. It was filled with so many fun moments and little things that made me realize how much I really love it here. For example:

Beautiful afternoon walks to the beach in Spiddal. 

A trip to Kylemore Abbey in the beautful Connemara region. The lake the abbey is on looked straight out of Harry Potter. We had a tour, walked around the walled gardens, and had a discussion session with one of the sisters about the state of monastic life today, which was really interesting. 

 Friday morning was the second session of cooking classes that Geraldine, the cook at the Park Lodge, is putting on for our group. We made homemade scones and jam, two different fish dishes, potatoes, salad and salad dressing. 

So many scones

Look at that plate of fish!

The finished products

That night some of us went to the Galway vs. Bray soccer game. As far as European football goes, this is about as unofficial as you can get. The crowd probably filled a quarter of the stadium. Galway is one of the worst Irish teams and lost by a lot, but it was a nice night out and still a lot of fun! 

A little toga party (note the pink sheets- just working with what we've got!)

On Saturday, the first annual (as far as we know) Cottage Olympics were held at the Park Lodge. We sort of planned the event, and everyone really got into it and it was so much fun. Each of the six cottages competed against each other in events like "How well do you know your cottage-mate?" and a potato peeling race. 

Other highlights of the week include getting TWO packages in the mail (thanks Mom and Patti!!), a fun dinner with our next door neighbors, and a traditional dance class at the music school in Spiddal. There are also some visitors here from the CSB/SJU London and Roman-Greco programs, which was a fun surprise. 

Tomorrow morning Ellen, Kelly, Bethany, Katy, and I are headed to Dublin where we will spend the night and then leave early Friday morning for Brussels. I won't have my computer with me, so my next update will probably be after November 5th when I will be able to tell you all about our adventures in Belgium and Switzerland!

Photo of the Day

We had to wake up early to leave on a day-trip to Kylemore Abbey today, which meant I was able to see this beautiful sunrise from our kitchen window. 

Weekend in Dublin

We are back from our trip to Dublin, which I enjoyed a lot. Overall it wasn't my favorite city I've been to or the most fun excursion we've done on the trip so far, but it was still a great weekend. I feel like there is a lot more to see and do there, so I'm happy I'll be back there a week from Thursday before we leave for our break, and again in December when my parents come to visit.

Most of the things we did during the daytime in Dublin were class-related, which was good but also got a little long sometimes. When we arrived on Thursday afternoon after about a two and a half hour bus ride, we toured Kilmainham Gaol. This former jail is now a museum that tells the story of the many leaders of Irish rebellions that were imprisoned and some executed in the prison by the British and later in 1923 by the Irish Free State. There was no segregation of women, men, and children in the jail, and often children as young as 5 years old were imprisoned for something as minor as petty theft. The tour was interesting, and so was the architecture in rooms like the East Wind, shown below. This room has been a part of movies such as The Italian Job, Michael Collins, The Escapist, and a U2 music video was also filmed there. 

After the tour we had some free time and a lot of the group toured the Guinness Storehouse. Since it was such a beautiful day (a rare occurrence) some of us decided to pass on this and walk around instead, and tour the brewery when we're back in Dublin next week. In the evening we had a group dinner at the Brazen Head Pub, the oldest pub in Ireland, which was very good.  Later on we checked out some of the pubs in the Temple Bar area.

The view of the Four Courts from our hostel room window.

On Friday morning we visited the Hill of Tara, and archeological site with some ancient monuments. The site itself was a little boring, but the views of beautiful green fields surrounding the hill were really beautiful. 

Next we drove to Newgrange, which ended up being one of the highlights of the weekend for me. I wasn't expecting anything too exciting, but we had an excellent guide who was really enthusiastic about the history of the site and made it very interesting. Newgrange is a passage tomb that was built around 3200 BC, so it is about 500 years older than pyramids of Egypt, 1000 years older than Stonehenge, and also older than the Mycenaean culture of ancient Greece. We were split into two groups to enter the tomb, since it's actually a pretty small opening on the inside. We were all huddled inside and the lights were turned off making it completely dark, and then the guide used another light to simulate what is looks like on the winter solstice, when the opening of the portal is perfectly aligned with the rising sun and light fills the tomb. Being inside a 5000 year old structure, the oldest standing man-made structure that you can enter in the world, was a pretty cool experience.  

Newgrange

That night almost all of us signed up for an organized pub crawl, where we stopped at five different pubs. It was a fun way to get to a lot of places in one night, hear some good live music, and talk to other students from around the world who were also part of the group. 

Saturday we had a tour of some of the highlights within Dublin. We drove around for awhile while a guide pointed out some points of interest, then got out at Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells and the beautiful Long Room of the library. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside the library, apparently because George Lucas used photos of the library without permission when making Star Wars Attack of the Clones and used it as the Jedi Library, so I found a photo of what it looks like, it was pretty awesome:

The rest of the day was spend visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral, walking around Grafton Street, going to Christ's Church and seeing Strongbow's tomb and the crypts, and going to the National Museum where Br. Colman, our theology professor, met us for a tour. That evening was a little more low-key, and a group of us went to a free traditional music and dance show we had heard about. 

Trinity College

Outside St. Patrick's Cathedral

Grafton Street 

Outside of Christ's Church

Inside the National Museum

On Sunday Br. Colman led us to Clonmacnoise, ruins of an ancient monastery. It looked like a lot of the places we have seen already, but I enjoyed the beautiful weather while walking around, and thought some of the high crosses were pretty cool. 

There was an archway you could whisper into and someone could hear it on the other side, so here Charlie and Greg are testing it out:

As we headed back to Galway it started downpouring, as though signaling our time in the sunny east of Ireland had officially come to an end. 

Out and About

It's weird to think that living here has become normal, but we definitely have settled into somewhat of a routine. We've spent the last two weeks catching up on sleep, exploring Galway, checking out the outdoor market, going to some fun pubs, trying some new recipes, going to a traditional Irish music session at a recording studio in Spiddal, planning an upcoming trip to Belgium and Switzerland (our break is only two weeks away!), having mini dinner parties, attending a yoga class, and taking walks in the rain (it really does rain all the time here). Oh yeah, and going to class and writing a few papers too.

Galway Bay

A busy Saturday in Galway.

Peeling apples for homemade apple crisp. 

Michelle's recipe is so good and we've made it multiple times now.

The colorful streets of Galway.

The St. Nicholas market on Saturdays in Galway.

Tomorrow morning we leave bright and early for Dublin. I've been in Ireland for almost a month and a half and have only briefly driven through Dublin on my way from the airport, so I'm excited to finally visit! We're all ready for another group excursion, and this should be a fun one. 

Walking to Spiddal

A typical day here usually includes a walk into Spiddal, which is technically where we live but the town itself is about a mile and a half away. It's not very fun when it's dark out or raining, but on days like yesterday when the sun is shining and blue sky is finally visible it is a beautiful walk. Here are some photos from my outing yesterday...

The Spiddal hurling field

It's a pretty great place to be living.