London Calling

So I am fresh back from a weekend trip to London! The trip was amazing and busy and tiring. We did London in about 2 days if that says anything at all about the pace of our trip. But it was a good experience and we are proud of ourselves for getting ourselves to and from London and navigating in the city.

First a few highlights from the week before we went to London:
1. Tour of the Irish Parliament Building, Leinster House. The tour was given to our Notre Dame group by one of the Irish senators, Mark Daly. The building was beautiful and had a lot of history in it. Though, I have to say, the highlight of the night was having drinks in the bar (Yes, they have a bar in their Parliament Building. It's Ireland after all.) Senator Daly (all of us girls in the group have a little bit of a crush on him) did a great job with the tour and made time to chat with everyone in our group before the end of the night. He's invited our group to his hometown, Kenmare, the first weekend of March which should be a fun trip.

2. Finding Phoenix Park with my friend Ashley. Neither of us had class on Thursday so we decided to ride the 10 bus as far as it would take us which is to Phoenix Park. Phoenix Park is on the north side of the river so it was nice to explore a new part of the city. We found the zoo and a really cute spot for a cup of tea.
3. Irish Literature Class. Yes, I am going to class while I'm here. I'm taking this class at O'Connell House with some other Notre Dame students. It's a highlight because our professor for the class is absolutely brilliant. His name is Seamus Deane (here's his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Deane). He is a famous Irish poet and as Kevin Whelan, the director of our programme who is brilliant in his own right, says, "Seamus Deane is probably the smartest man in Ireland." We're really lucky to have him teaching the course because he hasn't been able to teach it since last year because of health issues. When I say he is brilliant, I mean that in Wednesday's lecture I barely understood what he was talking about (neither did my English major friends). I'm excited to continue learning from him and am hoping I can manage to keep up with the class.

Now on to London. Our trip to London was a whirlwind. Here's what we did.

Day One:
We left for the airport at 5 in the morning and got into the city around 11. We went to King's Cross and took pictures at Platform 9 3/4. At noon we met up at the Natural History Museum with one of Ashley's friends from ND who is studying in London for the semester and one of Ryan's friends who is studying at Oxford. From the Natural History museum we headed out to attempt to get tickets for a show that night. We were on a mission! So we trucked our way through part of Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, and finally made it to Trafalgar Square. Ashley and her friend headed out alone to see if they could get us tickets while the rest of us went into the National Gallery. We were pretty wiped out at this point but it was worth it because we got tickets (half-priced) to see Avenue Q that night! It was a great musical with a great cast and we had awesome tickets in the middle of the 4th row!

Day Two:
We got up early and after breakfast at our hostel headed out to see London! We rode the tube right to central London. When you walked out of the station, you immediately saw Big Ben! Next we went to Westminster Abbey and then walked along the river before heading to Covent Gardens for a bit. Then we met my friend Jen who has been studying at Oxford and who I have not seen since September! We did Globe Theatre, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and then the British Museum. The night ended with Thai food and drinks at a pub after.

If you can't tell from this, we did a ton of stuff in barely two days. I could have spent a week there easily and know that someday I will have to return! I was proud of our group for having the energy to fit everything in that we wanted to see, getting around the city easily (a special thanks to my friend Ashley who was basically our guide for the trip) and just having so much fun even when we were really tired from all the traveling and walking.

This coming week I actually need to be productive: homework, laundry, grocery shopping and all that fun stuff. But we might do a daytrip or overnight trip somewhere in Ireland this weekend and on Sunday we're having a Super Bowl watch at the O'Connell House!

Also I've now been in Ireland for three weeks which is crazy! It's going by quickly already!

A Day in Howth

We went on our first day trip out of Dublin yesterday and it was GREAT! We went to the town of Howth, a picturesque fishing village north of Dublin. The weather cooperated (mostly, except for some fog in the morning and late afternoon).

Basically we spent the morning hiking around. We didn't quite follow the trail we were supposed to but it was still really fun. We ended up hiking up some random hill on a muddy trail and would have had great views except for the fog. But it sure helps when you're lost if you have good company!

There was a castle and the ruins of an old abbey. Howth also has these really cool cliffs right on the ocean. So after recharging from our first hike with fish and chips and a quick stop in a pub to warm up, we set out for the cliffs.
It was beautiful there. We're planning a return trip sometime in April and May when the weather is a little better and we can hike more along the ocean. I'd say for our first day trip it was quite successful and we're definitely excited for more traveling in Ireland. But this week we are gearing up for our first trip out of Ireland! Friday morning we leave for London! Only 1 person out of our group of 6 has ever been so it will be interesting. Looking forward to seeing the sites and also a friend from ND who has been studying at Oxford for the whole year!

I have officially been in Ireland for one week now! I started class at O'Connell House yesterday and class at UCD today. Classes seem like they will be okay. I'm in class a lot less than at Notre Dame. For instance, I only have class at UCD on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. In effect I will have 5 day weekends since Mondays I only have class at O'Connell House at night. Perfect for trips around Ireland and other parts of Europe as well!

Starting classes has kind of been a reality check for me. I've definitely been in tourist mode and not actually thinking about the fact that I will have to do some work here. It also makes me realize just how long I'm going to be here--four whole months!

Well, enough about classes and on to the fun stuff! Saturday and Sunday we got to walk around Dublin more and I'm starting to feel like I've got my bearings. Dublin is a great city. And also great for me as a history major just because there is so much history here. I'm excited to continue exploring the city!

This is the General Post Office in Dublin which was seized by the Irish in the 1916 Easter Rising. They didn't think the British would fire on their own building but the British sailed a gunboat up the Liffey and the building suffered serious damage. You can actually still see bullet marks on the columns.

And of course we've visited a few more pubs. We went to a pub called O'Donaghues on Friday night. The pub was crowded and so we ended up wandering our way into a less crowded backroom where two guys happened to be playing some traditional Irish music. That was exactly what we had been hoping for. Saturday we ate pub grub at the International Bar and watched part of a rugby match (which none of us quite understand yet). Sunday night after dinner at Professor Whelan's house a few of us headed to O'Neills for some more live Irish music. That pub wasn't crowded at all so we had our own little booth. The music was great too and just makes the atmosphere of the pub that much better!

The backroom at O'Donaghues.

Next up on our agenda is more pubs, a visit to the Garda to get my student visa, and a day trip to Howth on Saturday!

Week One: Dublin

Greetings from Ireland! Thought it was about time I actually started blogging and things have finally settled down a bit so I have a few spare minutes to actually write something!

We got into Dublin Tuesday morning at 8:25. Basically we dropped our stuff at our dorms right away and then went to O'Connell House which is the Notre Dame Centre in Dublin. It's a really cool Georgian house on Merrion Square in the City Centre and called the O'Connell House because Daniel O'Connell, a famous Irish politican, lived there for most of his life.

The rest of the week has basically been spent settling in: grocery shopping, orientation, figuring out the bus system, and other things like that. I'm living in the dorms at UCD (University College Dublin). So far 4 out of my 5 roommates are here. It's a fun mix. 2 of us are American, 2 are Australian, and one is French! We'll have to wait and see who the sixth is!

Last night was the first night we went out. We went to a pub called the Stag's Head where I had my first pint of Guinness! It was crowded and crazy in there but we managed to find a table. It was a lot of fun! We'll definitely stop by that pub again!The Stag's Head

On the way back from the pub we happened to meet a guy on the bus whose dad graduated from Notre Dame and mom from St. Mary's. Small world, right? Just goes to show that Notre Dame people are EVERYWHERE!

More to come later once I have a bit more time, have visited more pubs, etc!