Snowy Stockholm

I made it back from Stockholm, tired (up at 3:40 to head to the airport) but happy. Stockholm was great!

My friend Ryan and I flew into Stockholm on Thursday. We stayed with Ryan's uncle and 3 cousins. It couldn't have been more fun!

Friday Ryan and I took a tour of the City Hall in the morning. We met up with his cousin, Erika, when she was done with school to walk around the Gamla stan (Old City) and grab lunch at a cafe. We met up with Ryan's 2 other cousins, Hannah and Jonathon, at the Medieval Museum after lunch. To end the day, we went to Modern Art Museum. Stockholm has nearly 70 museums which is nice especially when the weather is cold and snowy. It was nice to see snow again though since I really didn't have much winter at home and it doesn't snow that often in Dublin.
Friday night we had a fish fry at the apartment and then watched the Olympics till late at night. That was nice because Ireland really doesn't care about the Olympics. I've been dying to just watch a little bit of it. Thankfully Sweden pays a bit more attention to it.

On Saturday morning we had Swedish pancakes for breakfast. YUM! Then we kids headed out to more museums: the Historiska Museet and the Vasa Museum. The Vasa Museum was really cool. The Vasa was a big warship that sank in Stockholm's harbor in 1628 on its maiden voyage. They found the wreck in the 1950s and salvaged it. It took them nearly 3o years to restore but now it's in the museum.

Saturday night we watched more Olympics-saw the Swedes take gold and bronze in cross country skiing. And then it was time to leave. We were back in Dublin by 9 this morning.

I'm not going to lie. I was ready to get out of the snow and get back to Dublin's more moderate weather. (Remember when I said that Dublin doesn't get snow that often?) When we dipped under the clouds on our descent into Dublin, we saw SNOW! It snowed in Dublin last night! Thankfully it was all melting already which I was happy about.

Stockholm was so fun! It was great staying with Ryan's uncle and cousins and not in a hostel, getting home cooked meals, hanging out with Ryan's cousins and having them show us around. Now I am ready for a weekend here in Dublin since I haven't had one since the second to last weekend in January. I have essays due next week that need to be written and my friend Ashley has ND friends coming in from Austria this weekend so we'll have fun showing them around the city.

Dingle

Let me just start this off by saying that I have now been in Ireland for a whole month! Wow. It is going by way too quickly already!

I had been anticipating spending this past weekend in Dublin since I haven't done that in a few weeks. But when my friend Kaitlyn suggested we head out to Tralee and Dingle, I couldn't say no. It was so worth the trip.

We planned to stay in Tralee 2 nights and go to Dingle for just a day. When we got to Tralee, though, we decided to go to Dingle that day and spend the night. It was the best decision. Dingle was an hour-long bus ride away but the drive was beautiful! It's the prettiest part of Ireland I have seen so far.We found a hostel to stay in and then headed out for a short walk. The scenery was so beautiful! And we had sunshine!
That night we headed to a few pubs. It was nice because since it's the off season there weren't many tourists so it was basically us and the locals in the pubs. We stopped at this pub called O'Flaherty's and ended up spending most of the night there. Our friend Sam got to talking with a local guy. Later in the night the bartender/owner and a few other guys played started playing some Irish music. We also found out from the owner that the local Sam had been talking to was a great Irish dancer and he ended up dancing a bit for us. All in all it was good craic.

What wasn't very fun was the hostel we stayed in. It was fine for sleeping but sometime during the night, the heater must have turned off. It was freezing when we woke up!! To top it all off, the hostel had no hot water! Because of that all of us could not warm up for the rest of the day.

We took the bus back to Tralee that afternoon and were planning to catch the rugby match and stay the night. But when we got to Tralee we collectively decided we all just wanted to get back to Dublin that night.

Even though we left early it was still a really good weekend. Here is the real highlight of the weekend though! Dingle has this famous friendly dolphin, Fungie. He's been around since the mid-80s. They have tour boats that go out to see him and everything. We were all joking around about seeing him. If any of us saw something in the water, we'd yell, "FUNGIE!!" Unfortunately on our walk we did not spot him. But as our bus was leaving Dingle, I looked back and saw one of the tour boats that goes out to find Fungie and THERE HE WAS! So I woke my friend Ashley up and we both got to see him!So I am traveling again this coming weekend and then hopefully just staying in Dublin the next weekend! I really need a weekend here especially since I have essays due soon! So after going to Stockholm this weekend I will get to work!

Galway!

Another weekend, another trip. Going to Galway this weekend was a great idea! We didn't even really decide we were going till the beginning of the week! It was really nice to see more of Ireland. Galway is on the west coast and we took the train there so we definitely go to see a lot more of the countryside.

We spent Friday just doing our own little walking tour. We saw the church where Christopher Columbus stopped on his way to the New World. We walked along the pier. We stopped in the shops. Ashley, Kaitlyn, and I bought souvenirs: Claddagh rings! They were originally made in that area. The ring is two hands holding a crowned heart. It's really pretty. We felt bad for dragging our friend Ryan to all the jewelry shops though but it was worth it.
Friday night we made our own pub crawl! We visited 6 different pubs around Galway! It was a good mix. We had some good traditional Irish music at a few of them. Overall, they were less crowded and cheaper than pubs in Dublin.

Saturday morning we did something amazing! We ate the full Irish breakfast. Now this is not for the faint of heart. It was a lot of food. Let me see if I can remember: tea, orange juice, toast, bacon (kind of like Canadian Bacon), a fried egg, fried potatoes, mushrooms, half a tomato, baked beans, sausage, black pudding, and white pudding. We were so full afterwards. None of us wanted to eat till dinner.
After breakfast, we wandered through the farmers' market and then walked by the river up to the Cathedral. Even though it was really foggy out we decided to walk out to Salthill to go on the promenade by the sea. We didn't have much of a view but it was still fun.

Ireland was playing Italy in rugby that afternoon (they just started the Six Nations tournament. It's a pretty big deal especially since Ireland is the defending champ from last year) so we headed into a pub to watch the match. I'm starting to feel like I have a little bit of an idea of what is going on in a rugby match though it still looks a little chaotic to me at times. Ireland won the match and we chatted with a nice Irish guy throughout the game. Irish people will talk to Americans about anything and they often seem much more interested in current American events than any of us are.

So that was the weekend in Galway. It's been a good start to the week here in Dublin. We watched the Super Bowl last night at O'Connell House. This weekend I might head to Tralee and the Dingle Peninsula with some friends and then next weekend I am heading to Stockholm. Hopefully a weekend just in Dublin at the end of the month!

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!