The Grimm's Take on Ireland

It was my spring break after the Dublin trip and I was back in Louisburgh for Monday and Tuesday and was supposed to meet my parents and sister back up in Dublin on Wednesday.

I had to take the train back up to Dublin.  I boarded the train at 7:15.  It was a pretty new and modern train.  I bought my ticket online and when I boarded the train it had my name above the seat I was assigned so I felt pretty fancy.  The biggest struggle of the train ride was where the bathroom was.  I didn't have to use the bathroom for the first 2 hours when the train was pretty empty but with about an hour left I really had to use it but I was boxed in and the lady sitting next to me looked like she was sleeping.  So I was stuck holding it.

When the train arrived in Hueston station in Dublin I had planned out where I had to walk.  The first goal was to find a bathroom and either I was blind or Hueston station didn't have any bathrooms.  And my walk to meet my parents would take about an hour and I was about to burst.  So I started to walk and couldn't find the street I was looking for so I jumped into a cab.  I told him to get Waterloo road as fast as possible.  Waterloo road was where I was supposed to meet my parents.  Then I was making small talk with the cab driver and he actually knew the owners of the market in Louisburgh and told me tell them "Hi" from Denise from Dublin.  I guess everyone in Ireland knows everybody, its a small world.

So I finally made it Waterloo road and started to walk towards the B&B that we were staying at when my mom spotted me from with in a Starbucks and stopped me.  I didn't even give her a hug, I ran inside, dropped my bag off and sprinted into the bathroom.  I walked out and then hugged my family.  My mom said it look like I was in pain when she ran out to stop me.

They were all really jet lagged and I tried my best to find things in Dublin to do, to try and keep them awake.  We went to a museum for awhile and after about an hour, they said they couldn't even read the little descriptions below the objects.  We then stopped for some more coffee and decided to just walk around Dublin.  They finally said they were really tired at about 4:30 and we headed back to the B&B and they were all asleep by about 6 PM.

The next day we did a lot, we went to a church, the book of Kells, and got a great dinner in Temple Bar.  It was great to see my family and they will be here till Wednesday, I'm really excited.

Big Day in Dublin

I am going to try and describe this day with as much detail that I can without it being 5 pages long...

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Started out with a very rude smacking of the alarm clock at 7:30 and waking up the rest of the roommates to go down for breakfast in the hostel we were staying at.  We had to wait in line for our beautifully delicious full Irish breakfast.  We ate that quickly and then went back up to shower and change.  After we met our group out in front of the hostel, we made our way to Trinity College to see the book of Kells and the Long Room.  The long room is a big library that feels like the library from Harry Potter and is filled with first edition books.  For example they have the first edition of Gulliver's Travels by Johnathan Swift and have many first editions of Atlases that somewhat have the correct shape of countries and continents.  We then left the College at about 11:00 AM.

Then I had a choice to either go to the Guinness factory or go to the National Museum of Architecture.  I actually chose to go National Museum of Architecture, not because I don't like Guinness (I love it!) but because the National Museum was free.  I am very glad I chose the museum because they had an exhibit about the Bog bodies that were found in Ireland.  These bodies were preserved unbelievably well in the bogs.  It has something to do with the acidity of the bogs that keeps the bodies so well preserved.  There were four bodies on display and each had a little description on how they died and how and where they were found.  Some of the bodies still had facial hair, finger nails, and almost full heads of hair.  These people were sacrificed in around 2000-1000 B.C and still weren't bald.  Our group of about 8 students left the Museum at about 12:45 to get some lunch. 

We stopped and had a quick bite to eat at "Mama's Revenge" which was actually a burrito place.  I ate a really spicy quesadilla.  We then walked a couple blocks and got on the bus, full of the rest of the drunk students that decided to go to the Guinness factory at about 1:30 PM.  It was a very entertaining and fun bus ride.

Then half of our group got dropped off at Kilmainham jail, and the rest of the group and I got dropped off at the National Museum- Collins Barracks.  There we saw many exhibits about the Easter Rising in Ireland.  Also many other exhibits about other battles that Ireland fought in dating way back, to before 1850.  They had many uniforms and the weapons that were used in the many battles including the battle of the Boyne and WWII.  From the outside it looked like a small museum but once we got in we realized that it was huge and had to try and soak as much information in as possible, in the hour that we had there.  We then left the museum and swapped places with other group at about 3:30.

We got to Kilmainham jail and had to wait in line for a tour, we got super lucky and we were in the second to last tour of the day.  The jail was really old and somewhat creepy like many old jails.  We learned a lot from our tour guide; for example the jail held women, children and men in it at one time.  Also that the youngest person in the prison was of the age of 5 and was put in there for 2 months when he was caught trying to steal a bronze ring during the great potato famine.  Also the main corridor or holding area has been used in many movies and music videos.  It has been used in the Italian Job, the Shawshank Redemption , and many other movies.  The main corridor has been used in many music videos and for concerts because the acoustics in it are unbelievably good.  The acoustics were made to be so great so that guards could even hear the prisoners whisper from across the giant room.  Our tour finished at about half 5.  That's the Irish way of saying 5:30.

The rest of the group got back on the bus and drove off to pick up the people back at the museum.  Three others and I decided it would be a fun idea to go bouldering.  We were going to go bouldering at a place named Gravity.  We finally made Gravity at about 6:30.  We filled out paperwork and got our climbing shoes and were free to climb the wall.  The walls were no bigger than 25 ft and you didn't have a rope tied to you so you had to climb up and then climb back down.  There were different color routes that you could choose from and each color had a different difficulty.  It was a blast.  All four of us could feel our arm muscles tighten up and our hands get ripped apart from climbing the wall.  We were all exhausted and starving by the time 7:45 rolled around.

We left Gravity and our first goal was to find food as quick as possible on our journey home.  I call it a journey because Google maps told us that we were 5.4 km away and it would take us an hour and 6 minutes to walk back to our hostel.  We quickly found a fast food place that I do not recall the name of, all we cared about was that it had food.  We all ordered our food and waited about 5 minutes for it.  Once we received our food we walked out the door and started to devour the food.  I don't think the food made it any farther than 4 blocks.  We were all satisfied but all we wanted to do was relax and put our feet up, which was a problem because we still had a long way back to the hostel.  We started to speed walk and I think we would have given the Olympic Speed walking team a run for their money.  We saw a lot of Dublin that we wouldn't have seen.  We made it back to our hostel in one hour exactly.  We were all proud that we were 6 minutes faster than the Google maps time and it took each of us about 6 minutes to fall asleep after we made it up to our beds.

It was quite the day jam packed full of fun and interesting experiences and I can honestly say I would do them all again!

St. Patrick's Day!

One thing that I can cross off the bucket list is celebrating St. Patrick's day in Ireland.  In Louisburgh there is an annual parade just after noon going through the town square and every year the students of St. Scholastica partake in parade.  This year we worked along with Louisburgh street arts.  We were doing an Irish myth, where there were sea monsters and beautiful people.  They divided us up into the sea monsters and the beautiful people.  So we helped them make costumes of both the sea monsters and the beautiful people.  I was divided into the sea monsters.  We were then assigned jobs like carrying a flag or wearing a mask.  Me and three others were assigned to carry drums and to create a beat that sounded intimidating.  I didn't get a big drum but instead got to carry the top of a tea pot and got to hit it with a soon.  It created a very loud, high pitch noise.  By the time the parade was finished I couldn't hear anything out of my left ear, which was closest to the tea pot.  We got to wear face paint to make us look even more intimidating and the beautiful people got some too, to make them even more "beautiful".

We were to go in the middle of the parade and our job was to be as loud as possible, and more specifically as sea monsters, we were told to try and get as many kids to cry as we could.  We were surrounded by pretty school bands, cub scouts and sports teams, it was safe to say we stuck out like a sore thumb.  There was a news team there and they interviewed a couple of us and they filmed us in the parade and we actually made it on national television.  By the time we finished the parade we all were surprised at how exhausting being in a parade was.  Overall St. Patrick's day in Ireland was a success!!

Here is a link to photos of the parade on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/LouisburghStreetArts

If that doesn't work look up Louisburgh Street Arts on Facebook.
 

Football Sunday

Sunday the day before St. Patricks day we went to Castlebar to watch some hurling and some Gaelic football.  When first coming to Ireland I had no idea what either of these sports were but after watching the news I started to get an idea of the sports.  Both are very physical but hurling uses a stick and a small ball kind of like a baseball.  Gaelic football on the other hand used just a ball like a soccer ball and two soccer nets with goal post extending above them like a field goal in American Football.

We got to the stadium early to get good seats.  The hurling match didn't have many fans because it was a division 4 game.  It was still entertaining but our bus driver was telling us that if it was a division 1 game, there would be a lot more scoring and more exciting.  As the hurling game was coming to the end, the stands started to fill up to see the Gaelic football game.  The football game was County Mayo (the county we are calling home for 3 months over here) vs Cork who is ranked #1 in the league.  As the football game started Cork jumped out to 5 pints to nil (a pint is worth one point or over the goal but through the uprights and a goal is worth 3 points or in the net below the crossbar) .  Then Mayo woke up and tied it up 5 pints to 5 pints and they never looked back.  It was super fun and before you knew it you were just as into the game as the rest of the Irish crowd.  The final score was Mayo with 4 goals and 12 pints to Cork with 2 goals and 14 pints. 

It was nice to watch something physical, that was kind of like American Football and soccer in the winter on a Sunday.

Dinner In Bunratty Castle

Last Saturday night we arrived at our hotel just outside of Limerick.  We were all really excited because we knew that we were having (a free) dinner in a castle.  That castle was named Bunratty Castle.

We were let through the castle doors at 5:30 and then had to climb up a spiral staircase until you made it to the living room.  We were given a glass of mead.  Mead is a honey based alcohol that is sweet and is a little stronger than wine.  Everyone, including locals and our professors were telling us to "mind the mead" every year supposedly the mead crept on some people and they got a little too drunk.  So we all enjoyed our first glass and then we were escorted downstairs to the dining room which was a huge room full of tables and a stage for entertainment.

  We then took our seats and were told that we were going to have a four course meal, and to a college student that is like heaven to our ears.  We were given a small plate, a napkin, a glass for wine, and a small glass filled with lemon and water.  This cup was for our hands since we were only given a knife to cut the meat.  Our first course was a vegetable soup with some bread and that was really good.  Since we didn't have any silverware we had to drink the soup straight out of the bowl like they would have done in the medieval times.  Our second course was prime rib and the meat literally fell off the bone.  I can honestly say that it was the best prime rib I have ever had.  We were all trying to pace ourselves so we wouldn't get full so I had to slow down on the prime rib.  Our third course was chicken and potatoes, and this was probably the hardest course to eat without any silverware, we all used the knife kind of like a fork.  Our fourth course was a cheese cake and we were given a spoon to eat this.  After they delivered our dessert we were all full, and they filled up our pitchers of wine and water and told us in about five minutes direct our attention to the stage.  We were all stuffed and turned our attention to the stage and listened to some good traditional Irish music sung by the staff.

 

Then we were directed downstairs for our final drink which was either coffee or tea because they knew that we were all really full from the delicious meal that we had just devoured.  This was definitely one of the highlights of my trips so far.

 

Ocean Swimming in Winter! Why Not?

Another fun thing we did on our long trip south was we were able to go to Inch Beach on our way to Dingle.  We met another group of Americans at the beach and there was a girl and guy that were actually from Minnesota, it was nice to meet some new people that were from Minnesota.  Many of our group started taking pictures of the beautiful beach but most of us guys started skipping rocks into the water.  We then thought it would be fun to run down to the edge of the water and run back up when a wave was coming in and trying not to get wet.  That soon escalated to us taking off our shoes and rolling up our pants and walking into the ocean.

It didn't take too long until a big, unexpected wave came and got our pants wet.  We then realized that our pants were already soaked so we mine as well make the most of it.  So we stripped down to our boxers and decided to run head first into the ocean.  Oh and did I mention that the ocean was absolutely freezing.  We couldn't feel our feet after being in the ocean for about 30 seconds.  When the water reached your waste you started to lose your breath a little and when you went completely under the water your breath was lost until you jumped out of the water.  We ran out of the ocean just to warm up, the sun beating on your bare skin felt great after the freezing cold ocean.

 

Our bus driver says every year all of the guys jump into the ocean and none of the girls ever do.  All of us said it was totally worth having wet underwear for the rest of the day.  Finally we were all soaked and super cold and decided to head back to our bus.  We couldn't feel our hands or feet so the four of us cuddled together in two seats and rapped ourselves in some of the blankets the nice girls lent us "crazy boys".  We were so cold that we thought everything was hilarious and other than being super cold we were all in a great mood.

Fota Wild Park

Today on our trip we had the pleasure of going to Fota Wild Park.  It had tons of animals that were endangered and that I had never seen before.  Fota is also known for not having many visible fences.  They even have Kangaroos, Lemurs, Peacocks, and many Chickens/Roosters that are able to roam free in the park.  I had never been to a park that was like this.  It was a little intimidating to see a full grown kangaroo jumping towards me.

They also had many types of monkeys and giraffes that were caged.

But my favorite part of the park was that they had at least 10 cheetahs.  They had a cheetah cub that was born last September.

One of the many Cheetahs that were caged

Not only were the cheetahs my favorite animal in the park, we also got to see them feed 3 cheetahs.  They had a large zip line with a rope dangling from it, that they would attach food to, and the cheetahs would chase after it and the one who knocked off the food would get to eat.  It was amazing to see how fast they were running, even though it wasn't even close to their potential top speed.

Also one of my friends had brought a banana along and when we saw the lemurs he pulled it out of his pocket and a pack of lemurs started to climb him for the lemur.  It was cool but also hilarious to see him being climbed by two lemurs.

Birr Catle

Today on the first day of our 6 day trip to southern Ireland we visited Birr Castle.  Birr castle is a big castle and the home to the 7th Earl of Rosse.  We weren't able to go into the castle because people are living in it but the grounds however are open to the public.

The castle even had a moat around it at some point.

There are many paths in the grounds that are really peaceful and would be just another perk to living in this massive castle.

It has a river running through the grounds and has some gardens in it but the biggest attraction is the "Great Telescope".  It was made in 1845 with a 72 inch reflector in it.  It was the biggest telescope until 1917 when the Hooker telescope was made.  However it was dismantled in 1914 but was then restored in the 1990's.  This telescope was huge and it would have been really cool to actually be able to look through it.

Time Flies! A Month Already?

I can't believe I have been over in Ireland for a month already.  Time is flying by faster than I would like but that just means that I am having a great time.  I have met many new people from my college and many Irish people.  I have also gotten the privilege to get to know the two professors that are teaching us, they are genuine and fun guys to hang out with.  I don't think I have had a bad day anytime since I have been over here.  I also can't say that I miss all the snow on the ground or the below 0 degree temperature.  Although I can say that I do miss my family and friends back at home but I will see them all soon enough.  I am still getting used to how fast the weather can change over here.  Yesterday I started an 8 mile run when the sun was out and within the first half mile it started to hail on me.  It hurt A LOT!!  Then it rain for the next mile which was fine, I find it somewhat peaceful running in the rain but the only down fall was that i was completely soaked for the remaining 6 miles which were sunny by the way.  It felt like I was carrying an extra 10 pounds on me.  The runs here no matter the weather are beautiful.  One day I felt like going on a long run and I stumbled on to a beach that was 4 miles away from where I am staying.  This is my favorite beach that I have seen since I've been here.

View on the way to the beach

 Also I have never seen so many rainbows in a month in my life.  I have seen two full rainbows but we are still yet to find a pot of gold or a leprechaun at the base of any of these rainbows.

View on the way back from the beach

This house is right next to the beach and it is the nicest house that I have seen since I have been here.  It has a room surrounded by glass on the top of it.  I asked the owner of the cottages that we are staying at named Peter if he knew who lived there.  He told me that it belongs to the owner of Ryan Air which is huge airline over here in Europe.  

Peter also told me a funny story about how he met Julia Roberts when she was staying in Louisburgh.  He went to the local bookstore to talk the owner that he knew very well.  While he was walking in the owner and Julia walked out and the owner introduced him to Julia.  Peter had no idea who she was and just said hello to her and hoped that she was having a good stay in Louisburgh.  It wasn't until later that he realized that she was movie star.  My roommates and I made fun of him for not even shaking her hand or giving her hug because that is what all three of us would have done.

Overall this first month has been great and full of great stories and fun times and I hope that the next 2 months will be just as great.

 

Community Day Across the Pond

This past Wednesday February 26th it was community day back in Duluth at the College of St. Scholastica.  Community day is a day where all the students get the day off and are strongly encouraged to go out and volunteer in the community that we live in.  Over here in Ireland we unfortunately didn't get the day off of school but we still went out and gave back to the community that is letting us live in their lovely little town for 3 months.

 

We decided to clean up the road to a local beach near our cottages where we are staying.  We threw on bright clothes so we didn't get hit by any cars and some gloves to pick up nasty garbage.  I had the honor using the "claw" to pick up trash that was in hard to reach places.

We brought 3 trash bags and they were almost all full by the time we made it to the beach.  We also found somethings that we kept, like a soccer ball and a volleyball.  I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure.

We all had a great time giving back to the community and it didn't feel like work in the slightest.