After a hellacious two day school week, we departed last Wednesday for Dublin, Ireland. That's a joke, but in reality, last week was actually pretty rough for me. I had three presentations to give in two days. Art History on Monday and then Spanish and Sociology back to back on Tuesday. On Tuesday night there was a SLU fine arts concert at a nearby university, so we all went to cheer on our fellow classmates. Many of the visiting students take dance classes like
Latin Rhythms or Flemenco, and their final project is this large performance, combined with singers and instrumentalists. It was really fun!! A huge group of us went together and sunk in some beer and wine, making the show that much more fun! I think we were the loudest ones there, but definitely showed the most school spirit!! We all went out for drinks at one of our favorite bars, Chapandaz (The Cave Bar), and went to bed way too late considering the next morning's flight...
Since last Thursday was the holiday of the Immaculate Conception, the entire country was off school and work. Therefore this type of weekend is called a
puente, spanish for bridge. It is because many of the people simply take off on Friday to complete the bridge into the long 4 day weekend. We did the same, except we took off Wednesday too, making for a nice 5 day adventure to the country of Ireland. Our flight left later than usual on Wednesday, around 10:30, so we had a little bit of a chance to "sleep in". We arrived in Dublin after noon and took a shuttle bus into the city, basically right to our hotel. We had considered going straight to the Guinness factory tour after dropping off our bags, but wanted to get the hostel employee's advice on how to best time it. There began our first major encounter with the power of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton! As it turns out, Hillary happened to be in Dublin the same weekend we were. We are still not certain if it was for business or pleasure, because evidentially she had made plans to see all of the same things we had in her free time from the congress she was attending. Our hostel receptionist informed us that Guinness would be closed on Thursday due to Hillary's private tour, so we had to hop on the tram and get there straight away. The factory was very cool. The tour does not visit the actual workings of the brewery, but walks you through the entire process and explains why Guinness is quite different. We ate beef and Guinness stew in the restaurant, which was really good (though we ended up having better stew in Ireland!). At the top of the factory is a round glass bar, called the Gravity Bar. We went there to have our free pint of Guinness and timed it really well to see the sunset. I have to admit I really hated Guinness before this trip, but so badly wanted to like it, since it just looks so freakin good! Fortunately, I really grew to like it after
several pints. (Actually, we are going for burgers tonight in Madrid and a big ole Guinness doesn't sound too bad...). After the tour, we made a pitstop in the Guinness shop, then headed back to our private, four-person room for a nap. Later, we went out to the Temple Bar region of Dublin. It is a very famous, Pub laden area, brimming with loud pubs and live music. We got a good table at the actual, original Temple Bar, so we stayed put for dinner there. They had a menu of
tons of different sandwiches, so we ordered those and even tried a true Irish coffee afterwards. It tasted of nothing more than straight whiskey, no coffee, and did not do much for me. That was the first and I imagine last Irish coffee that I will be having.
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| Dublin from Guinness |
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| Temple Bar |
On Thursday, with the Guinness tour out of the way, we had the whole day to explore the city of Dublin. We began with the old, medieval area and toured the Cathedral of Dublin. Inside, the preserved heart of St. Lawrence O'Toole, the patron saint of Dublin, was once kept in a wrought iron cage. Just last March the heart was
stolen from the cathedral. They have fliers inside looking for information on the robbery. Weird!! There were also crypts beneath the church and the wildest thing down there was a perfectly preserved cat and mouse, which were found inside the church's organ during renovation!! Next we went to the famed Castle of Dublin where Hillary struck
again. The whole castle was closed (except from the public exterior) for her private visit. Therefore we got to stroll around in the freezing cold, rainy weather, while they warmed up the inside for Mrs. Clinton. We ran into a couple friends from SLU who were walking around the city on a guided tour, but quickly ditched the, to resume our own agenda. The next stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral, a definite stop for St. Patrick's Day obsessed Americans. We learned that St. Patrick's Day was actually not a huge deal in Ireland, until the US popularized it. Now it is the largest celebrated saint's day in the world! The cathedral was just like many of the others we have seen, so not much to report there, however there was a really interesting gift shop at the back of the church, which sold everything Irish/St. Patrick imaginable. We found it strange to be able to buy shot glasses and beer tankards in a Catholic cathedral, but
when in Ireland, I guess. Afterwards, we went for lunch at a local eatery recommended by one of the guards of the Dublin Castle, whom we spoke to while trying to figure out the whole Hillary debacle. The restaurant was good, we ordered Guinness and Lauren and I got a traditional Irish meal of chicken stuffed with black pudding (blood pudding!!). It was a repulsive thought, but was actually quite tasty. Across from the restaurant was a little pub called the Brazen Head, which is Ireland's oldest! We stopped in for a second Guinness. The place was nice and cozy with a fireplace and candles, but the waitress was rude and unwilling to give us any time to figure out our bill, so we finished the drinks and got out of there. Our next stop was an old, famous prison in Dublin, Kilmainham Prison. The deceiving map made it look like a short walk up the road, but in reality it was about a 30 minute trek, far off of the tourist track. It began to rain on the way there, so by the time we arrived, I was soaked through from my coat to my Sperrys and had to pee terribly bad thanks to the two huge Guinness. Needless to say I was not the happiest Dubliner at the moment, but we made it to the prison, caught up with the tour and really enjoyed the experience. It was an interesting place with an even cooler history of prisoners and stories. Afterwards, we took a cab back to the hostel, napped for a while, then headed back to the Temple Bar area for drinks and dinner. We stumbled into a
pot pie place with a super friendly guy working who helped us pick out delicious pies and hand crafted beers for dinner. The food was great and just what we needed to warm us up!! We stopped into a Temple Bar pub after eating for a couple drinks, but called it a night pretty early to get some rest for our day on Friday.
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| Dublin, Ireland |
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
We planned a day trip to the south of Ireland to the city of Cork for Friday. From Cork we would transport to Blarney, the home of the famed Blarney castle and stone. We got on a train Friday morning from Dublin (we got a hefty discount for being students) and made the 2.5 hour journey to Cork. From there we had to catch a bus for a 25 minute ride to Blarney. Before leaving Cork, we stopped for lunch at another small pub, then walked around the Christmas decorated shopping district for a bit. The bus was running late to Blarney, but despite the delay we made it there and onto the beautiful grounds of the famous castle. We really had free reign to walk around the area and ascend the tall, stone castle. At the top, located within and underneath the battlements (the tall part that hangs over the top edge of the castle) was the Blarney stone, which is rumored to give the gift of eloquence to whomever kisses it. To do so, we had to lie on our backs and with the help of the employee, grasp two black bars and hang over, backwards off the edge of the castle. There we could tilt our heads back and kiss the stone, upside down. It was wild, but definitely worth it. Actually, doing so is one of National Geographic's 99 "Things to Do Before You Die". I can check that one off and also hope that some of that eloquence rubs off on this blog and my upcoming finals! After the castle, we headed back to Cork for the train. Turns out, we had just missed the second to last train back to Dublin and would have to wait another hour-and-a-half for the next. Therefore, we stopped into yet another pub for drinks and pot pies. I had to order three times before finding a pot pit that they actually had in stock and once my Chicken and Chorizo pot pie came, I was not happy with it. By 11:30 or so we were back in Dublin and on our way back to the hostel to prepare for the next, two full days of travel.
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| Blarney Castle |
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| Kissin' the Blarney Stone |
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| O'Connor's |
To occupy our time on Saturday and Sunday, we booked a two day tour through the Galway Tour Company per the recommendation of some friends. It was awesome!! All we had to do was get on the bus on Saturday morning and get off of it on Sunday night. Much welcomed simplicity on the final trip. The downside was that the bus departed Dublin for Galway at 7 AM on Saturday morning, so we had to get up
dark and early around 5:30 AM. Yuck! The bus took us to Galway, a fairly large city on the western coast of Ireland. From there, we left for the first day of our tour with the main attraction being the cliffs of Moher. Our first stop was at a cool, old castle on a lake. Next, we toured an area of Ireland's western coast called the Burren. It is a rocky, barren landscape dotted with ancient burial tombs. We stopped at one famous tomb and got to walk around, experience the landscape and observe the tomb. The ground has huge trenches dug into it after millions of years of glacial movement during the ice ages. We stopped for a lunch at none other than Gus
O'Connor's Pub! It was pretty cool and evidentially pretty famous in the area. I had the beef and Guinness stew again, along with another Guinness! Afterwards, we headed to the seaside for the famed Cliffs of Moher. They were so beautiful!! It is better to just explain them with some photos, that should do a better job. It was awfully cold and rainy and the guide explained that it strangely rains "up" at the cliffs due to the strong winds blowing upward and carrying the rain with it. We had to dodge a couple showers, but had really nice weather for the most part, got to walk all the way around the cliffs and even catch an awesome rainbow from the top of a nearby castle! The bus then returned us to Galway where we spent the evening awaiting day two of the tour. Lauren and I were put in one room (along with 4 other German girls), while Ross and Dan were luckily placed in a comfy 4 person dorm. For the evening in Galway, we ran across a cool Christmas market in the town square and walked around all of the little stalls, eating our way through. We had crepes and corndogs and ultimately ended up at a Paulaner beer tent, which was like a mini-Oktoberfest. Complete with the 1 liter tankards and German style tables and clothing! It was a lot of fun until they closed the bathrooms and basically drove us out tortuously as we scrambled for the nearest bathroom, after 2 liters of beer!!
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| The Burren |
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| Beef and Guinness stew, plus more Guinness |
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| Cliffs of Moher |
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| Cliffs of Moher |
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| Mini-Oktoberfest, Galway, Ireland |
Sunday morning did not make for the most enjoyable bus ride after the evening in the beer tent, but the beautiful scenery of Ireland's Connemara region did make up for it. Connemara was the second day's main attraction. It is famed for it's rolling, green hills, tiny Connemara pony, countless white sheep and world renowned, green, Connemara marble. We got to see it all, plus a few churches, cemeteries and other interesting sights. They ended the tour with an extended stop at Kylemore Abbey and gardens, which was a
private castle built in 1867 for the family of a wealthy, English doctor. The castle was later purchased by the Duke of Duchess of Manchester, and then later taken over by Benedictine nuns (I still saw a couple lurking around) who converted it into a school. Today, a staggering 4 rooms of the sprawling mansion are open for public viewing (haha!) and then there is an adjacent cathedral, family mausoleum and gardens to tour. We took a pass on the gardens and allocated time to the gift shop for some much needed Irish souvenirs. With our hands full of trinkets, we boarded the bus back to Galway, spent our 45 minute layover chugging a Guinness and then a couple more hours by bus, back to Dublin. Once there, we headed straight back to the Temple Bar for the delicious sandwiches we had eaten on the first night in Ireland. We got an awesome table right in front of the live singers and made quite an embarrassing entrance with our swollen backpacks and hands full of shopping bags. Tourists! For Sunday night, we had arranged a plush Hilton near the airport to have a comfy 4-hour "sleep" and a convenient shuttle to the terminal at 4:30AM. Despite the short stay, it was so great to be back in an American hotel with nice sheets, soft towels, a
real shower and and
ICE machine!
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| Connemara, Ireland with some sheep |
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| Kylemore Abbey |
Ad of today in Madrid finals week has begun. I had two exams today and have two more this week before returning home this coming Saturday! I cannot wait to make it back there for the holidays, if I can just get through these last two exams! I admit, the last few paragraphs of this post have functioned well in helping me procrastinate the unavoidable preparation for tomorrow's exam... ugh!
