Hiking in the Wicklow Mountains

After spending two weeks doing international traveling it was so nice to spend a weekend in Ireland. On Tuesday after class I went on a walk down the River Liffey to Phoenix Park, when I was walking along I noticed that Dublin had some really interesting bridges.


This weekend was really great. On Friday I went on a day trip to the Powerscourt Gardens with UCD.

As pretty as the Powerscourt Gardens were they were absolutely no match for Glendalough on Saturday. It was another day trip with UCD. Glendalough is in the Wicklow county as well. We went on a guided hike through the mountains. The drive up to the park was gorgeous, when we were driving up I was able to see sheep. This was one of the first views that I saw of Glendalough.

See those mountains in this picture, I ended up walking up the entire mountain. We went on this hike upwards and I was knowing the entire time that my legs would be mad at me the next day and they were. We had the most absolutely gorgeous weather as you can see from this picture. When we started to climb up on hill this was one of the first signs that I could see, very comforting.

Luckily I survived the climb up the hill! It was very strenuous on the legs but the view was extremely worth it.

When I go to places like this I almost can't believe that they are real. Today my friends Stephanie, Kadie and I went into the Dublin city center and went on Sandmens New Dublin tour company the same company that I went on the our of in Berlin, it's a free tour company and when we noticed that they do tours in Dublin we thought why not. We felt like complete tourists doing this especially since we have been here for about a month and a half. We were not the smartest about this, when we got on the bus I asked Stephanie if she new where the tour was meeting and she was like "wait I thought you knew" and I thought that she would have known. Luckily we were able to find a visitors center where we were able to find a visitors center that guided as to the tour. I'm glad that we went on it though we had typical Irish weather, the day started off really sunny,warm and nice and as we were doing the tour it started raining intermittently. Then right at the end of the tour it began pouring and even hailing for about 5 minutes. Needless to say we were freezing at the end!

I've had a great week. I really have been missing a lot of friend of family back home and I just hope that you all will have room for me when I come back and not forget about me. Can't wait to see you all. I'm so excited for my two weeks off soon.

Trip To Paris!

Late last night I got back from a weekend in Paris and I had an amazing time! The trip was for sure not the smoothest trip, we all had to get up around around 3:30 to go to the airport for our 6:30 am flight. On the flight we were with a group of high schoolers on a school trip and they were very lively, running around the plane, singing and screaming. Then the plane was diverted to Lille Airport because of fog around Beauvais Airport where we were supposed to land. We had to take a shuttle from Lille to Beauvais which took about 3 hours and then we took another shuttle from Beauvais into the city center which took about an hour and a half.

This is going to sound corny but as we driving into the city center I almost felt like a little like a little kid with all of the excitement that I had while were driving through the city and I could see all of the little cafe's and especially when I got to see the Eifel Tower in real life for the first time! One of the first things I did when I got there was go for food I got to have this incredibly french crepe. I could not have enough of the french food, I got to eat a croissant which was amazing! I also kept going for the Baguettes, I went through one a day! Their chocolate was also amazing!

more french food,

On Friday night I got to go to Louvre which was awesome! I got to see the original Mona Lisa which was behind bullet proof, bomb proof glass. I couldn't believe how big the museum was! There was so much that I wanted to see! Saturday it was unfortunately pouring out. We went on this hop on hop off tour around the city, but tried to stay in the bus as much as possible. I got to see Notre Dam and go inside of the church which was pretty cool! We walked around a lot more checking some shops out as well as going to see the cemetery that Jim Morrison any many other famous people are buried in. Needless to say I was soaked right after I got back inside and some french hot chocolate was just the ticket!

On Sunday it was still cloudy out but luckily the rain had stopped. I walked over to the Eiffel Tower with my hotel with a few people. I was really happy to be able to walk around a little bit. We decided to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower which involved walking up the leg of the tower to the second level. When you have extreme vertigo like me walking up like that is unbelievable scary, I had such panic walking up. Though when I finally got to the top the view was unbelievable it was so worth all the panic! I can't even imagine what it'd be like on a clear day!

It was so hard to leave but I'm so excited to go back in a few weeks when Em comes to visit and we go together! I really want to try to brush up my french a little bit more for the next trip!

Notre Dame


Mona Lisa
The Louvre
arc de triomphe

Trip To Berlin!

Well I just did my first international trip to Berlin over the weekend and it was a huge success. I got to see so much in just two days but I still wish that I could have seen more and stayed longer. My friend Stephanie and I flew in on Thursday morning. The flight over there was pretty quick only a little less then two hours. When we got there the first thing that we had to do was look for the train into the city center which was a little complicated since we do not speak German. Sara had given me some great phrase tips, so thank you Sara for those. Even though a lot of people speak English there is still a huge language barrier.

When we got into the city center the first thing that we did was grab lunch at a really authentic German place, Burger King. Then we walked around a lot and tried to get our bearings in Berlin. The map we bought at the airport was completely falling apart at the end of the trip. One of the things that we saw was this memorial to the murdered Jews, it was really sad to see, the memorial had all of these stories about people who were killed in the Holocaust. It was so sad to see.

On Friday we went on this awesome free walking tour of Berlin. Once of the first things that the tour guide pointed was the hotel that Micheal Jackson dangled his baby out of, it was right by Brandenburg gate, I found the gate so gorgeous. One thing that really impressed with is the large amount of changes that the city has been through in just my lifetime. Stephanie and I stayed at a hostel in East Berlin which is amazing because 20 years ago an American would not be able to stay there. It is almost like my children or grandchildren going to visit North Korea sometime. This article from the times for the 20th anniversary shows the changes that Berlin went through in the past 20 years.http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/09/world/europe/20091109-berlinwallthennow.html It makes me really interested to learn more about the reconstruction period.

Some other cool sights that I got to see was the sight above Hitler's bunker which is now a parking lot. The bunker is still underneath but it is not open to the public in fear that it would attract the wrong people. I also got to see what remains of the Berlin wall which was really exciting to see something so historical in person. I didn't see the East Side Gallery which is the largest remaining portion of the Berlin wall. I saw the former site of Check Point Charlie, everything original from it has been torn down but they have now built a complete replica at the sight. The area around it almost has a times sq affect.

After the tour we wanted to go to see the East Side Gallery but we were so cold that we needed to go inside, luckily we were right by the German History Museum and we went in and got to see this exhibit on Hitler that is only open till the end of February. It was pretty chilling some of the things that I saw, such as this telegram to order to order all these pieces for the gas chamber in the concentration camp which totally gave me chills. What also gave me chills were the things that showed the propaganda especially the ones aimed towards kids. There was this one that showed a video of Hitler meeting and greeting younger children and they seemed so ecstatic to see him, they seemed just so brainwashed and it's so weird to think that these children may still be alive. I also saw these dolls and toys aimed at children to spread Antisemitism.

Overall I feel like the biggest thing that I took away from this trip was all of the History that Germany has. The country definitely does not try to hide their history which I can respect. Though it is just amazing how much the country has changed in such a short amount of time.

Memorial To The Murdered Jews
Look at how pretty that dome is!

Brandenburg Gate

Our Hostel room

Check Point Charlie
Berlin Wall

Micheal Jackson Baby Dangling Hotel

Week 4

I can't believe that its almost been a month that I've been out here! It seems like time has been going a lot faster since February has started. This week and weekend has been rather low key for me, it's the first weekend in a few weeks that I have been staying completely in Dublin the whole weekend though it will be my last weekend in Ireland for the next two weekends. Next weekend I will be going to Berlin and then the weekend after I will be going to Paris with my study abroad program. I'm also planning a couple of more international trips in the spring, so worried about my bank account completely being drained when I come home but I keep telling myself that its worth it because I am only here like this for four months once.

I've joined a couple of clubs here on campus, Amnesty International which I am involved at back home as well as the World Aid Society. I've still been trying to get into my classes, its tough concentrating here but it feels like so much of a vacation. It's still an adjustment getting used to my lecture halls right here. There is a big election going on in Ireland right now which is a big part of the climate in the country right now. When I was in Galway last weekend a bunch of canvassers tried to stop me to persuade me to vote in a certain direction, though as soon as I said that I was American they seemed disinterested in talking to me. I want to try to look into more of the issues going on here.

Yesterday I went into the city center with a few people to check out this carnival for the Chinese new year. It was pretty low key, I think the weather turned away a lot of people. There has been extreme wind and rain over this weekend. I did find another store name with the name 'Hickey's"