Last Week in Dublin

It keeps on hitting me that at this time next week I will be back in the United States. There is a lot that makes me sad about leaving but I am really excited to see people again. I really wish that I could spend my last week here enjoying it but I've been in finals for the past week and still have two to go. For our finals we have to go to this building off campus that looks like an airport coat hanger, then you go to take your test in this giant room that looks like a parking garage with everyone else who is taking a test at the moment, the room is filled with thousands of students. It's very intimidating.

Over the weekend I had a great little study break. On Friday night we had the API farewell dinner in Dublin city center, and during the dinner my friend Katie arrived in Dublin from Barcelona. After we enjoyed our lovely steak dinner from Fire Restaurant in downtown Dublin, a lovely restaurant. After that I took her to a pub so she could get the Irish pub scene, where she got to experience first hand how expensive Dublin is.

On Saturday Katie and I got up early so that we could go straight into the city center so she could see the city before I had my final. I showed her Trinity College, O'Connell Street, and the River Liffey. Then I hoped on a bus back for my final!After my final we went straight back to the city Center and I took Katie for some more site seeing, I showed her Grafton Street, Dublin Castle and Temple Bar. It was interesting showing Katie the touristy side of Dublin, it gave me deja vu of back in January when I felt like more of a tourist and it made me think about how fast this trip has gone.

Katie and I at Dublin Castle

I really wish that Katie could have seen better weather, it was pretty cloudy when she was there. It was raining a lot during the day. Though during the late afternoon the sun was starting to make an appearance so I took Katie to see St Stephen's Green, which is for sure one of my favorite places in Dublin. For dinner I took her to O'Neils this really great restaurant in Dublin that gives huge portions, with lots of potatoes.

Gorgeous St Stephens Green
Classic Irish Meal

Later that night Katie got to hang out with my friends Kadie and Stephanie, there was a lot of confusion with two Kadie's. We went out to TGI Friday's which was really funny, going to an American Restaurant in Dublin, I'm also really glad that everyone hit it off.

Early Sunday morning Ginny arrived into Dublin, she was stopping in Dublin for a night before she went to see her aunt in Cork. I'm really glad that the Barcelona group got to be back together again. We walked around Dublin a little bit showing off the same sights that I had the previous day.

There was one interesting twist in the day, Ginny had left her phone on the Dublin bus when we were coming into the city center.We had been afraid that she wasn't going to see it again, especially after we reported it to the Dublin Bus. Though when we were on O'Connell Street my phone went off it was someone who had found the phone on the bus and took the phone all the way out to this town he lives in which is about a half an hour outside of Dublin. The phone call had really bad reception so we really couldn't understand what he said, all we could here was some to go the Blanchardstown station, which we had assumed would be the bus station, though it turned out that there was no bus station, so the bus driver dropped us off at the fire station. We wandered in there to see if we could get directions. What ended up happening was that we were standing there for about 15 minutes with no one else standing in the room, though a fireman ended up coming in and was really confused about why we were there. So he called up the man that called Ginny up and he emphasized that we were AMERICAN, it made us look REALLY stupid. He was planning on bringing it the police so we ended up going back to his house to pick it up. Luckily we were reunited with the phone and it became a funny story.

Ginny left this morning and I was stuck to go back to finals. My last finals is on Thursday I can't believe that in 6 days I will be home again!

Blarney Castle, Malahide and Some Studying

Since classes are officially over last week was revisions week where we had the whole week off to study. Now finals are beginning next week, my first one is on Thursday. The idea of taking finals in a foreign country is so nerve racking I feel like they are never going to end. At Lesley I've always complained about not having enough time between classes and finals beginning to study so now that I have the time that I have wanted I should actually be studying but it is hard.

Since I only have about two weeks left of being in Ireland I'm really trying to make the most out of my last few weeks here while combining studying. On Wednesday Stephanie and I went on a paddy wagon tour to Country Cork. One of our first stops was to the town Cobh pronounced (Cove) Cobh has this really pretty harbor which is the second largest harbor in the world. Cobh is famously known to be the town where the Titanic last took off from, so me being a Titanic geek got great enjoyment out of that.

After wondering around Cobh as well as stopping in this other fishing village Kinsale we headed over to one of the most famous castles in Ireland Blarney Castle. Now I must say I was expecting that Blarney Castle was going to be over hyped but it was not, the grounds that it was on was this gorgeous garden. As well as even though I have seen other castles nothing compared being able to go inside one and climb to the top of the stairs, which was a long climb up really narrow stairs. The top of the castle has some amazing views. That was where I kissed the famous Blarney Stone. It is believed that if you kiss the stone you will have good luck, a good thing to do before finals I suppose. I was really nervous to do it especially afraid that I'd be dropped but I wasn't! All in all the excursion was well worth it and worth the study break.

Many people asked me what it was like watching the Royal Wedding out here in Ireland. Well to answer that pretty much the same as it would have been if I was back in the United States, especially since I watched it on a New York Times website, the only difference was that I didn't have to get up at some awfully early time to see it. Ireland does not care for the royal family much. In my tutorial from my Ireland uncovered class for tutor was saying how she was born on the exact same day that Prince William was born in Northern Ireland 5 minutes to midnight and her mother who considered herself to be on the Irish side of the conflict actually asked the nurse to record her birth five minutes later due to the fact that Princess Diana had said that every family of a baby born on the same day as Prince William would have a special spoon from the royal family and she wanted nothing of them.

On Saturday Stephanie, Kadie and I took a trip to this town Malahide which is north of Dublin a little bit. It was right on the beach which we got much excitement about I miss the beach a lot. I had so much sand in my flats when I came home. Malahide also had the castle that we wanted to just see quickly and snap a few photos of before we headed on the train back to Dublin but it turned out that walking to the castle involved this long walk through a park, which was pretty but we were tired.

I cannot believe that it is May already and that in two weeks from today I will be on a plane back to the United States. I really want to make the most out of the time left in Dublin when I am not studying because I have grown really fond of it here but I do truly feel ready to go home. It will be nice to use the dollar again and not have to worry about exchange rates as well as I really miss my family and friends and feel like I've been apart from them for too long now. I'm getting souvenirs these next two weeks, any requests?

Happy Easter!

Well I am officially done with classes, my last day was on Thursday. I'll have off this week as a week to study and then I have two weeks of finals and then it is on my way home for me. I'm really going to have to figure out a good way to study for my finals in a productive way, which I'm a little nervous about. My feelings about the trip coming to an end goes to very big extremes, sometimes I'm really feeling home sick and feeling like I just want to go home right away and then other times I am thinking of everything that I love about it out here and it makes me sad to be going soon and not knowing when or if I'll ever be able to come back. Overall I really miss my family and friends back home and am excited to go back.

This week has been such a great week weather wise. It has made me grow to love spring in Ireland even more. On Friday I took a quick little trip to this coastal town Bray outside of Dublin, it is similar to Howth but I think I like Howth better. You can really see the beach from Bray, as well there was a mountain that you could climb up, the views are supposed to be really pretty from there. Though it was really humid so was not feeling up for it. Though I still enjoyed how pretty it was.

I have been spending a lot of time in St Stephen Green's, the public park in the Dublin city center. With the amazing weather the park has just came alive. On Saturday Stephanie and I took the bus into the city center and just sat there for hours sunbathing. We also went to the National Ireland Museum of Archeology to see the bog body exhibit that we tried to go to last weekend but went to the wrong museum. It was pretty cool to see.

Spending Easter in Ireland was an interesting experience. It was a little different then I expected. It is definitely observed more then it is in the United States though I was expecting the country to completely shut down on both good Friday and Easter Sunday which it didn't as much as I expected, though things do shut down more then they do in the United States. Stephanie came over today and we made a great easter brunch, we cooked steak, home fries, scrambled eggs and french toast. It turned out very well if I do say so myself.

Anyway I wish everyone a Happy Easter! To all my family and friends I cannot wait to see you soon, and hope to see you as good as possible when I get home!

Spring Time In Ireland

Scenes of Dublin

It's so hard to believe that I am down to less then a month left here in Ireland. I really want to make the most out of my last month. One thing that makes it a little difficult to do is that a big portion of this last month will be consumed with finals. I've got one of Wednesday that I've had a really hard time focusing, I don't know where I'm going to find motivation to study from.

This week I got to spend a lot of time in the city center of Dublin which I haven't gotten to do in a while since I've been doing so much traveling. On Monday I saw a production of one of my favorite plays, The Sound of Music at the Grand Canal Theater in Dublin. Then on Saturday I finally got a chance to go to on of the free museums in Dublin. Stephanie and I went to the National Museum of Ireland and were there for a few hours reading about the history of Ireland as well as looking at some antiques. We had gone there specifically to look at this bog body exhibit but we realized about 3 hours into our stay that it was at another museum in Dublin, guess it gives us another excuse to go to another museum.

Today Stephanie, Kadie and I took the train out to Howth, the coastal town that I have been to a couple of times. On Sunday's they do this market where they have a lot of little booths with local food. We enjoyed some crepes which are likely better then any crepe I've ever had in Paris. We also got some great cupcukes as well as tried out many samples. Howth was so pretty, we didn't go up on the cliff like I usually do when I'm there but it was really nice to just sit by the water and look at the water. This country gets even more pretty in the Spring. I hope I get a chance to explore it somewhat during the rest of the time I'm here.

When I got back I got to finally skype with my cousins John. A and Julia! I haven't gotten to talk to them since I left. Their staying with my parents this week it was amazing to get to talk to them again. It made me realize how much I missed them. It makes me ok with the fact that this trip is coming to an end in a few weeks. I just have to find a way to balance finals and enjoying the last weeks.

I'm so lucky to have them <3

21st Birthday Travels

This past Thursday (April 7th) I turned 21, it was very interesting turning a birthday that is so known for being able to drink in a country that I've been legally allowed to for the past three months. The novelty is worn off a bit. Never the less I still had an excellent birthday by doing what I love most, traveling!

On Wednesday April 6th I boarded another one of those first thing in the morning flights to Rome Italy to meet up with my friend Ginny and two of her friends who are studying in London with her. Wednesday was spent mainly getting lost, A lot and getting our bearings in Rome. I did get to see this really pretty fountain as well as the Colosseum, which took up a good percentage of my photos. It was a really nice day out.

On Thursday, my birthday! We all went to the Colosseum to actually go in. We walked all the way there from the apartment that we were staying at, which was about a half an hour. It was gorgeous out but extremely hot out. We got tickets to the Colosseum, after waiting on quite a long line and went in. It so cool to go in and see it, amazing to think of how long this building has been around for and it also had some really great views.

After we went to the Colosseum we were dehydrated and famished so we went to an Italian restaurant and I got to try my first helping of pizza from Italy. The NY pizza snob had to see if something matched it up. I must say it was quite yummy, though I still have a great affection for NY pizza.

Our ticket to the Colosseum included a ticket to this park that was filled with ruins, it was so cool to walk around them, especially seeing ancient ruins surrounded by a modern city. The park had this structure that we were able to climb up to be able to see great views of Rome. It was so cool.

After we walked amongst the ruins we went to go see the Trevi Fountain, it was so hard to get up close to it because there were so many people around it. Though it was absolutely beautiful. After the Trevi Fountain we went to go see the Spanish steps which we also crowded with tourists. We climbed up them and it had another great view.

After doing our site seeing we went to go get my favorite snack, gelato, to tide us over before dinner. For dinner we went to this really nice Italian restaurant that we thought seemed really cheep, though it ended up that we spent more money on bread and water then the actual meal. Though the pasta was amazing! Overall I had an amazing few days in Rome, I wish I could have stayed longer in Rome or be able to travel through Italy more. It has made me realize that my thirst for travel will not be quenched during this trip.

I got back from Italy mid afternoon on Friday then on Saturday morning I headed off for another trip with my friends Kadie and Stephanie who go to UCD with me. We took the bus up to Belfast, in Northern Ireland which is considered part of the UK. We were really excited to be able to go up there and see if we were able to see the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Belfast really did seem more like a British city then an Irish city. Though one really could not see that there was a history of tension there.

On Saturday we went over to the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, it was so pretty. The Botanic Gardens had a museum within it, called the Ulster Museum. It had many different sections with in it, we took much interest in the history museum which explained a lot of the troubles that have gone on in Northern Ireland. After the museum we walked around the city more, we got to see the city hall which was a really pretty building. It had a little exhibit in front of it that was commemorating the upcoming 100th year of the Titanic launching.

Today we went on a tour of other parts of Northern Ireland with the Paddy Wagon. Our first stop was this one place that had a really great view as well as a rope bridge. The rope bridge cost 5 ponds to cost so decided not to cross it. Though there was some really pretty scenery around it that we enjoyed taking many pictures of.

Our next stop was the Giants Causeway! We were there for about two hours but it went so fast because it was so gorgeous, something that didn't even seem real. We had to walk down a long hill to get to it and then we just went crazy taking photos of the rocks as well as walking around them. The Giants Causeway is a result of a volcanic eruption, I'm not into Earth Science but it was so cool to see something like that live.

Later in the day we went to Derry/Londonderry. We had went on a self guided walking tour around the city, which was such a great idea. Derry is the only city in Ireland and The UK that is completely still a wall city. There was still much evidence of the tension between the British Protestants and the Irish Catholics in the city. Many murals around showing this sentiment. Our tour guide told us many stories about riots going on that have happened recently. It was really fascinating. Overall the trip was a huge success!