Ireland!

Dublin

2009-07-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Dublin! I'm staying in a hostel. Its one of the best hostels in Dublin, or at least it has that reputation. I honestly wouldn't know since its my first one. I'm sharing a room with three other people. In two days I've had two completely different sets of people. Tomorrow promises the same unless they don't sell out and I get the room to myself (here's hoping). The showers have the same set up as the ones in the Maynooth. Which I'm not particularly fond of. You know those sinks where you press down to get water and it slowly comes up and stops the water? That's how these showers work. There is NO way to adjust the temperature, and you have to keep pressing throughout your shower. In Maynooth I showered during a low demand for shower time- which meant the water was way too hot and I practically burnt my head trying to wash my hair. I haven't been brave enough to shower here yet, but I will tomorrow in between roommate changes. I have to repack my bags tomorrow for the airport too.

Since Monday in Dublin I've rambled around Saint Stephen's Green, toured the Yeats exhibit at the National Library, toured the Art Gallery, took the 1916 Easter Rebellion tour (and got a signed book, and saw the bullet holes at the old post office), toured the Garden of Remembrance, and toured Dublin Castle. I also went to see the bog bodies again. I've walked up and down the Temple Bar area and got the best icecream there.

I've been pretty busy and I'm really tired from all the walking I've been doing. My legs don't hurt anymore. The first two days in Galway my legs just ached, but I've got rather use to all this rambling.

I'm going to miss Ireland when I leave, but I will be glad to be getting home to Robin.

(I'll probably post pictures of Dublin and Maynooth after I get home, I'm a bit too tired to mess with it right now)

Maynooth, Kildare

2009-07-25T02:46:00.000-07:00

Right now I am staying in Maynooth University in Kildare. Its beautiful here. I also toured the Maynooth Castle yesterday which is the old Fitzgerald home. Not too much left of the castle anymore.

There seems to be an extreme lack of public transportation in Kildare, which is unfortunate since that is where my family is from. I hate to say it, but you really need a car to see Kildare. And that I don't have nor do I want to try driving on the opposite side of the road.

In my continued research for family roots I have found the contact information for St.Mary's. Peter Killian (not really sure how he is related but my cousin Debbie knows, probably a Great Great Uncle if I had to guess) worked as a superintendent in 1863 on the construction of St. Mary's.

Broadford, St Mary's
Co. Kildare
Telephone:046-9551203
Email: balynaparish@eircom.net

Adventures in Dublin

2009-07-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

I went to Dublin for a few days. The first day there I saw the Book of Kells at Trinity College. That evening I went to see RiverDance perform. Both were amazing.

Second day in Dublin I went to the National Library. Their genealogy office is incrediably helpful. I now have the map of what my Great Great Great Grandfather Bartholomew Killian rented from Michael Williams. He rented two lots- 5A and 5B hopefully you can see it on the map I took a picture of. Its right near a main road that has since been expanded. It looks like some of the natural markers are still there according to google earth. According to the tax forms he rented a House, offices, and land. Don't know if anything is still out there but I hope to go. (You can click on the map to enlarge it, 5A & B are near the top center)

Not many people around here have heard of Ballynadrumny. The place never developed. There was once a church near by but I can't find an address for it, so it may not be there anymore. South of Ballynadrumny is Broadford. The name of the Catholic Parish was Balyna. The church records are on microfilm. I need to go back to the libary to look at them- they *may* have a marriage certificate for Bartle and Catherine- if so, it would have their parent's names on them. From what the genealogy ladies in the library said, its very likely they are buried in the church yard in Ballynadrumny. There is some complication with that because catholics were not allowed to have their own burial ground some time in the 18th century.... which makes them a bit more difficult to find. She also said many of the head stones don't have names or dates on them during that period.

Anyway, after that we went to the National Museum. There were Lunalias which are hammered gold in the shape of a crescent moon worn as a necklace. Very beautiful. We also saw the bog bodies. They are really well perserved. You can see facial hair on the men. One of the bodies was just an upper torso without a head- but his chest and arms were so well perserved that you could almost imagine him moving. He didn't seem hundreds of years removed from us- it was all very strange. There was much more the the muesum but I didn't have enough time to walk it all, so I'll have to go back.

Then we went to the Guiness Storehouse. It was basically an exhibit as to how the beer is made. It was interesting. We went up to the top of the Gallaxy Bar and could see all of Dublin.

Then we went on a Musical Pub Crawl. Unfortunately downloading the video clips to my computer didn't work out right, so I lost a good bit of them. However some survived, and here they are:

Galway Open Air Market

2009-07-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

Galway has an open air market every Saturday and Sunday. My guide book only indicated Saturday but things have since changed to include Sunday. Its good and bad really. Basically everything you resisted buying Saturday you have another chance to get Sunday. It was fun and there are several hand crafted vendors- normally run by the artist so you get to meet the artist too. They had REALLY good doughnuts- melt in your mouth mmmmmm good.

They had a lot more things than just food. I just really liked taking pictures of the food.

This is the lady I bought my mother's present from. Tee hee. It drives my mother crazy that she doesn't know what I got her.

Galway Parade

2009-07-24T02:45:00.002-07:00

Last weekend July 18-19 I went to the Galway Museum and Aquarium. The Museum didn't have a lot to it, but what it did have was interesting. It had a very large exhibit to Pres. Kennedy's visit to Ireland. It had part of Saint Ursalla's skull in a silver box.

The aquarium was a pretty awesome place. It had a very old, I think 10,000 years old, long boat. At the end we got to hold starfish and feed fish bread.

This is my friend Katie in front of the aquarium tank.

Sunday evening we saw the Galway Art Festival Parade. It was very strange. We got there a good hour early to get a nice spot on the sidewalk. Keep in mind most Galway sidewalks are only big enough for one person to walk on (if you want to pass you have to step into the street) the "large" Galway sideways are big enough for two people side by side.

There were signs that you weren't allowed to park on the parade route- people did. They were NEVER towed. The parade started at 10:00 at the Spanish Arch- the cops were still letting cars and public buses drive on the parade route at 10:30.

When the parade started coming down the street people were standing in the street in front of the park cars to see- almost entirely blocking the path of the parade. People were walking backwards in front of the parade taking pictures. We are talking no crowd control here.

Then this very drunk guy stumbled into the front of the parade. The lead in the parade was a transvestite. She grabbed on to this drunk fellow and sorta danced then straddled then proceeded to pretend to whip him. The crowd got a good laugh and then the police picked the drunk guy up, and told him "there's a good wall over there for you to lean on" (this so wouldn't happen in the US). Then as the floats start to come, the drunk guys decides to sit in one. This stops the parade. The cop comes up to him again, puts his arm around his shoulder and goes to find him "a nice place to sit down right here, hang on to the sidewalk, there you go" and leaves him again. I was informed by my host family that "Irish police have better things to do than arrest drunk people." Not really sure what, because there is really very little crime in Galway. My host family also said there is a law against drinking in public but its clearly not enforced.

The parade was at night. The floats were lit up. It was a very odd parade to watch. There wasn't much to it and no candy for the children either. There were three people spinning around "dogs" - they were cans with teeth cut out the front and fire burning on the inside. The parade people would go into the crowd and nab a child then swing the child back and forth like they were going to throw the kid into the flames. The kids were laughing. If they had been American children, they would have been crying and the media would have been outraged. Instead of giving candy to children, we throw kids to flames in Ireland!

Then the crowd started to follow the parade (very strange) so I did too (why not?). We went to the church and in the parking lot the other half of the parade (they came from two different directions) met up and they had some kind of crazy music sort of dance. There was a fire display best described as giant sparklers.

Video clips from the parade:

I will add that it was really cool seeing a parade at night and now I wish they would have night parades in the states.

Baby Swans of Galway

2009-07-24T02:45:00.001-07:00

Dingle Saturday and Sunday

2009-07-24T01:28:00.001-07:00

I'm going to try to quickly catch up in my blog. Saturday and Sunday in Dingle can be summed up in one word RAIN! It was the worst storm I have experienced since being in Ireland. Normally, it rains, then the sun comes out, then it rains & repeat- for most of the day. This rain didn't stop. It rained all day Saturday and the wind at night was howling.

Unfortunately most of our bus tour went like this, "And over here on the right is (insert important name here) but you can't see it because of the fog and rain, so I'll just tell you about it." The roads were really super curvy. We were driving on the side of a mountain and could see the rocks below. It was supposedly a two way street but it wasn't working out very well for the RVs trying to pass our bus. There was also a stream that ran across the road. Later in the day that stream turned into a river and we couldn't pass there. Two of the bridges flooded out. We had to take an alternative route back to our hotel. We did stop off at one museum that talked about the people who used to live on a Peninsula and that was sorta cool. The best part about the museum is it was dry.

It wasn't the best trip over all. And to top it off, I got sick on the bus, had to make the driver pull over so I could throw up on the side of the road. You know you feel awful when you hop out into the wind and rain and think "This feels sooo much better than the bus!" I spent Saturday evening in the hotel room watching American shows on TV. That's pretty easy to do considering most of Irish TV is american shows. Well there are a fair amount of game shows too but I hate those. I watched a little bit of the Celtic Games too. If you ever get a chance to watch any you should. I know some people who actually went to a game in person and loved it. Between John giving me OTC drugs and Brenda bringing me crackers I recovered well. It was probably some 24 hour bug I picked up. I think its fairly easy to get sick at least once because you run yourself down touring all these different sites and the weather is rainy all the time. Being sick does have a way of making you especially homesick. Which kind of sucks.

My roommates saw Dingle the weekend before my group went- they had great weather and loved it. What I didn't see because no one got off the bus after awhile because of the weather was a beach, some cliffs, the peninsula, a sundial, a graveyard and quicksand (which one of my roommates had stepped in up to her knee on her trip).

Here's a few pictures of what I did see:

The Beehive hut. And let me tell you, those rocks keep the rain out. I actually hid in this one for a awhile to get out of the weather.

This is the walls for a larger stone house with several rooms. The hole in the ground was for drainage. The roof of this one has been gone for awhile. I hid in the doorway, crouched down listening to the tour guide to keep a little dry. This was the only place we got out of the bus. After this we decided it was too wet to get off again.

Wish it had been nice enough too go down to the beach. You really need to plan to be a couple days in any place you want to see just in case the weather sucks. Unfortunately this was only a weekend trip.

Some sheep near the ocean. You can't really see it here but many of the farmers mark there sheep with orange, red or blue paint so they know who it belongs to. Most of the sheep we saw on the Dingle tour were blue. Its kind of disturbing if you don't realize they paint the sheep. The first sheep I saw painted in Ireland were red and at first I thought someone had brutalized a whole flock.

Dingle Friday Night (July 10th)

2009-07-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

This is the place I stayed out in Dingle for Friday - Sunday. I shared a room with my friend Brenda. We had our own private bath and a tv with a good number of stations. No internet access. Apparently the lobby had a grey cat though I never saw him.

Here's pictures of the room we stayed in.

Some pictures of the town of Dingle

After I took this picture a woman next to me walked out into the street yelling "Taxi! Taxi!", waving her arms overhead - the car she was trying to flag down was a police car. I had a good laugh over that and so did she when she realized her mistake.

Just thought this place was pretty

ah, Irish humor and directions. It never really changes does it?

The non-official name of this pub is the "Yellow Pub". I stayed in there for a bit listening to their music. I spoke to one Irish man who was quite friendly but was standing too close for comfort... just enough so that I wasn't sure if he was creepy or not. So I excused myself and rejoined with my GMU group in the pub. Tom, our faculty person who came with us was talking to a local Dingle man. As the conversation progressed the man leaned closer. Then he put his hand on the wall next to my head, effectively trapping me against the wall. I kept thinking, "This man is totally standing in Robin space right now". Basically when he was talking to Tom he was close enough to kiss him, seriously. Eventually he said goodbye and left. I wasn't freaked out this time because I realized that personal space isn't quite the same in an Irish bar. Now on the streets in Ireland people tend to give you the same amount of space as they do in America- but in a pub its just different. I spoke with my friend Katie who said that one man had leaned so far into her that his ear was practically in her mouth. I think this happens because the pubs are so loud.

Just thought this was a pretty door and knocker.

I got icecream here. They advertise that all their milk comes from Irish cows. And most of their ice cream has some sort of alcohol in it.

I just love this sign. 5pmish Sometimes closed on Wednesdays

Dingle had some of the best pubs and the best music I've experienced in Ireland

These performers were in the "yellow" pub sorry its so dark, but you can hear the music and that's whats important.

This was an impromptu singing by random bar goers. When we left they said "awww come on, we weren't that bad" They were really quite good. But the bar was closing and trying to kick everyone out. This type of singing tends to happen quite a bit if you go to the right pubs. The Crane in Galway has this happen every night. Someone will bang a glass against a table and everyone in the crowd says "SHHHHHHH" and then someone sings for a pint. Its awesome.

Pictures of the Drive to Dingle - Friday July 10th

2009-07-20T10:21:00.001-07:00

Just some pictures taken from on the bus. The storm clouds made for some pretty unique pictures. Most of the time it looked like the clouds were sitting on the tops of the mountains

I'm not really sure what this building is but it looks like aliens have landed to me!

Bunratty Castle - Friday July 10th

2009-07-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

So we stopped at Bunratty Castle on the way to Dingle. The castle was surrounded by a small village- a sort of reenactment place. I didn't get to look around the village as I would have liked because we only had about 1.5 hours to tour the castle and get lunch. As the picture suggests it was sort of a yucky rainy day. This is one of the prettiest castles I have visited.

The stained glass was just lovely. It was pretty much all throughout the castle

This is the ladies window. Since the girls were not allowed in the Great Hall, they made this window for the lady folk to look into the hall and be amused.

View from the ladies window

Me at the top of the castle. Unfortunately the view from the castle top wasn't so great because of the road and other urban developments. The edge near the look out point dips down at the wall. I didn't realize this and so I basically fell into the wall. I wasn't sure there was anything under my foot so I had my claws sunk into the stone. My friend Katie reassured me there was solid ground under me and I stepped back. Did not like that experience, just assumed I was dangling over a huge drop.

Some pictures of the inside of the castle

This was hanging above on of the beds. Who would want to look at this before falling asleep?

This is my favorite room of the castle because of the awesome ceiling

Some pictures of the little folk village

Aran Islands Bike Ride

2009-07-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is just to prove that yes, I was taking pictures while riding my bike!

More Aran Island Pictures!

2009-07-20T07:58:00.001-07:00

This is the pretty little beach we stopped at. You can really see all the different colors in the Irish ocean in this photo.

There was a little grave yard we stopped by.

Some of the horse drawn carriages

I just wanted to show an example of the stone walls up close. The stone walls are all over Ireland. They don't use a mortar to hold the stones together. They are stacked carefully and neatly, fitting various sized rocks together. There is no "glue", which makes them all the more impressive

This picture is just the vision of Ireland. Cattle, ruins, and green fields.

The "town" we stopped at for lunch. Most of the crafts are handmade.

It was amazing to watch the waves crash into the sides of the stone

This is probably my favorite picture so far. This really says yes, I'm in Ireland. And yes, being this close to the edge is super scary

Looking directly down at the water from the cliffs

Me, trying to look over the edge without you know, dying.

Me with our super sweet tour guide. He must be really strong of heart because he watches people go near the cliff edge every day.

This is a fairy house

Yes horses lay in front of houses in Ireland. I saw one on the front porch once.

The guy we rented the bikes from told me that there are not many donkeys left on the Island. When the movie Shrek came out all the girls wanted donkeys for their sweet sixteen gift (who would have guessed?), so there was a big problem with donkey theft at the time.

There were underground caves that the water was crashing into, it make an awesome sound. Here's a video of one. Yes, I know, it was windy.

The Birth of a Foal!

2009-07-18T04:12:00.000-07:00

Remember the horses outside my window? Last weekend the brown mare gave birth. Isn't her little foal adorable? He's only a few days old in these pictures

The Aran Islands!

2009-07-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

Keep in mind I wrote this right after the trip to the Aran Islands but didn’t post it right away because I needed to upload the videos and pictures. I took over 600 pictures of the Aran Islands- no you don't get to see all 600 right now, maybe when I get back- ha!

____________________

There’s not much to say about last Saturday ( July 4). I spend the day inside studying for my exam on Tuesday. Not very fun. That the bad part of a study abroad – the study. I did figure out the gas station about 5 minutes walking distance from my house is open 24/7. Which is great if I just want a quick bite to eat, even though the cashier didn’t sound as happy about the hours.

Sunday (July 5) I went to the Aran Islands. That was quite the journey. I was on a double decker bus for about an hour or so. Double deckers are super cool because they are way more bouncy than a normal bus and you can sit in the front on the top- which means there are HUGE windows.

There are some pictures taken from the bus ride.

Notice the cows front and center. There are cattle all over Ireland.

This is a two lane road. Some of the cars pull off into the shrubs to avoid the bus.

Then I got on a ferry. The ferry ride was an hour long. Downstairs there were nice sitting arrangements so you could stay warm and sleep or look out the window. I was on the top deck hanging on to the rail. I had water splash in my face. The wind was so strong it was making my eyes water. My sunscreen ended up getting in my eyes. Overall the trip was AWESOME.

This is the downstairs seating on the ferry.

The upstairs seating on the ferry

These are some pictures from the ferry ride.

Then I got on a bike, yes a bike, its like the never ending journey. I’m not even sure how far we biked but it was several miles. The first two hills divided our group pretty well so we weren’t all knocking in to each other. After that it was all down hill. I was going so fast I was screaming- great fun! There were of course lots of cattle, some goats and horses. At one point an older gentleman was walking his donkey on the side of the road. There was also horse carriages. We stopped at a beach to explore and also at an old grave yard. Then we continued on to “town”

Some of the bike ride pictures

“Town” was really one café and a few small shops. BTW a chicken salad sandwich here means a sandwich with chicken and lettuce and tomato. I guess the lettuce and the tomato are the “salad” parts. Some way for any sort of “salad” sandwich you would order in Ireland.

I got a soda. If you order a soda here you are often asked if you mean “soda water”. It is best just to say coke. Sodas are served in sizes that would be appropriate for children in America. Now if you order anything with alcohol you will get a good sized drink but water and pop is something they are conservative with. I seriously considered ordering three sodas after biking all that way, instead I got a bottled water too.

The shops were lovely. I wish I had more time to look in them. Everything was handmade and more affordable than it is in Galway. Did fine some nifty things though. Also, the horse carriages stop there, and the drivers speak Gaelic. So I got to overhear some Gaelic which was pretty cool.

Then I walked (again this is the journey that just keeps going) up to this huge ruins of a city. The ruins we walked to are at the top of the hill in the picture below. You can see the path we had to walk to get there.

I tried to film all of the tour guide’s lecture. I have compiled them all into one compilation.

I really have no idea how to describe the absolute beauty of this place.

Ok I have a ton more pictures, I'll upload those a little later but at least you can see some of the trip now.

Essays

2009-07-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't updated in forever. I spent last weekend in Dingle- story for later. Anyway I was gone all weekend with NO internet access (cry). This week I've been shut up in my room trying to write two essays that are due tomorrow. I'm *almost* done. I plan on going out Friday night to celebrate.

Saturday I'm going to walk around Galway and check out the open air market (its every Sat and I've haven't been yet!). I also want to check out the Galway museum and the Galway aquarium.

Sunday and Monday I may be stuck in my room again. I have another two exams on Tuesday that I have to study for.

However I promise I will at the very least update the blog this weekend with pictures from the Aran Island trip (which was like two weeks ago- I know I'm behind!)

The Salt Hills

2009-07-08T12:50:00.001-07:00

Not real sure where to begin. Brenda and I went out to the Salt hills on Friday (6/3/09). We walked probably 8 hours that day. We found several small beaches. The water was green, black, blue and gorgeous. I don’t think all the colors of the water came out in my pictures but the sky turned out wonderful. The sand was white. The sea had a good amount of seaweed floating about and on the shore. Farmers back in the day use to break rocks, mix it with seaweed and use that for soil.

The picture below, I am on the same sand pile as the one above. I have no idea why the pile of sand was there, but it was super fun to climb!

We saw a wedding party and I took a few pictures of them. The bridesmaids had vibrant blue dresses on and it matched their blue car. They came down to take pictures to take pictures by the sea shore.

I took a few pictures my self and caught quite by accident “a moment”. Turns out one of the people in the GMU program knows the happy couple and was at their reception. So hopefully she will forward the few pictures I took.

After that we walked as close as we could to the “light house”. I assume it’s a light house anyway. There was a point where a sign forbid anyone who did not work there to not go any further. It was a really long bridge across the waters.

We found the aquarium, I have to actually go when it is open. We wondered around the gift shop some. Got some ice cream because the ice cream in Ireland tastes so much richer than the ice cream in the US. Wish I could bring some home but ice cream soup just isn’t the same. These giant ice creams cones are pretty much in every Irish town I have been to. I am always quite happy to see them.

We also found the Salt hill hotel. This is important because its where Trad on the Prom is performing. More on that later.

Then we went back to Galway city. I ended up picking up a pigeon that was in the book store window because he was panicked and no one was helping find the way out. So after I put the poor bird down (who I had felt his little heart racing), this little child ran up out of no where and scared it away. The good news is the bird flew and didn’t die of a heart attack. Poor thing.

These are a few pretty shots of Salthill. These were all taken the same day. The weather continually changed from sunny to rain.

Yes, I drew that in the sand. Love you Robin! Now Ireland knows that too :)

We kicked this wall because we know there is "a wall" that you are suppose to kick in salthill to prolong your life. I hope this was the right wall, otherwise, we just kicked a random wall for no good reason :\

Ireland wind makes for wonderful "angry" hair shots. The rocks I am standing on are completely covered in high tide.

This is a lovely photo, I climbed up on some slippery rocks to get it!

This is me climbing on the rocks for the picture above.

The Swans of Galway Bay

2009-07-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how many swans are about the Galway area. You can basically see them any time you cross over a river. They tend to gather in the bay area along with pigeons, ducks and seagulls. They are beautiful sight. There is an Irish association that takes care of the swans. The swans are quite friendly. From what I gathered from a rather long conversation I had with an older Irishman at the bay, the Irish are very proud of their swans. He told me they live to be 100 years old. These swans are nicer than the ones I have seen in the US. They don't seem to bother the ducks or smaller birds about. It may be because they are so spoiled from getting scraps of food. When you approach they will cock their head at you to see if you have bread.

This is a sleeping swan. I've seen them nap on the rocky shore, but most of them nap on the water. They tuck their head and just go to sleep. The curious thing while they are napping they are floating about and bobbing on the water. I wonder how many wake up and think, "This isn't where I went to sleep!"

This is kind of an odd thing they tend to do. They rest on foot out of the water on their back. They don't just do this when they are cleaning themselves like this one, but any time they don't want to go super fast. So there will be several swans with their foots up in the air, paddling along with only one foot. Now if they think you have bread they will put both feet in the water and swim up to you super fast, but otherwise they take a more leisurely, one foot to life approach.

This swan had just woke up from an afternoon nap and was having a conversation with me.

Ever wonder what a swan sounds like?

Celtic Stories - Wednesday 7/1/09

2009-07-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

I had dinner at the Front Door (its a bar not a random door somewhere) with my roommates and a friend. After which, I headed down to the Cottage Bar to hear Rab Swannock Fulton tell Celtic Stories for 10 euros.

This is the Cottage Bar. Its in the lower Salthills, which according to an older Irishman who spoke with me at the bay, its one of the oldest parts of Galway.

This is story teller Rab Swannock Fulton. He's actually from Scotland but tells both Irish and Scottish stories. The stories he told were funny, gross, disturbing and highly entertaining. This isn't actually a picture I took, as I didn't want to set my flash to go off. However Brenda asked another girl to take this photo (she was sitting in more advantageous spot), and the flash went off. Rab made quite a show of this, holding is eyes and screaming loudly. Tee hee. He was quite funny. And I got the picture without having to actually take it, which was awesome. And its a great expression of his story telling too. (if you are interested in Rab Fulton's Bio here it is http://geygallus.com/rabsbio.aspx)

Some of the GMU folks at the Celtic Tales.

Gaelic Class

2009-06-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

I had my first Gaelic class on Monday. It went by super fast. We went over two pages of Gaelic. The other Gaelic class only went over one page. Apparently I have the fast paced teacher. Gaelic isn’t pronounced the way it looks on the page. Consequently I was trying to write both the meaning of the Gaelic and the phonetic spelling of it. As the teacher was going quite quick this only worked so-so. Luckily my “language partner” has attended Gaelic classes before and kept helping me out. This class isn’t for a grade (I don’t think I could take it if it was). I did enjoy myself even though it was a bit overwhelming. Other students departing from class looked their brains had exploded. I have a feeling there will be a smaller attendance on Wednesday, but what the heck, I’m going back.

Cliffs of Moher

2009-06-30T13:07:00.001-07:00

They were beautiful, just breath-taking. It wasn’t raining when I went out there either.

There is a castle up on the hill.

I paid two euros to go to the top. It also had a scary stair case but it wasn’t as high up as Thoor Ballylee. The staircase was made of metal and a very tightly wrapped circular. The wind at the top of the castle was fantastic. I have a great photo of my hair just everywhere. If I was a goddess, I'd walk around all the time with my hair flying all about me in an angry sort of way (like this!), and I magically wouldn't have any knots. It was a pain combing my hair after I got home, but worth it. The wind was lots of fun!

I have a nifty story associated with the Cliffs of Moher but I will only tell it once I get back to the States. HA! Its something I just have to tell in person.

I saw this at the start the trip. I really think things like don't fall off the cliff shouldn't need to be said... but then I saw the tourists.

My host family says 2 or 3 people die every year the cliffs. Watching people lean over the edge with heels on… well I can understand why there is a sign. There was one man, that both myself and my GMU Faculty Director, Tom, both hurried by because we didn’t want to witness his fall. As far as we know he didn’t actually topple over, but it really looked like he was trying to.

There is a restaurant and gift shop built into the side of a cliff. It reminded me of stories about dwarfs building their homes inside of mountains. My host family said there was a big controversy over whether or not to allow the building of the shops and restaurant or to leave the land untouched. Honestly you can barely tell they are there, since they are built inside the hill. I think it added something instead of taking away.

And yes there were cattle. Cattle are everywhere in Ireland. I managed to actually cluck a black and white cow over to me. He nuzzled my hand twice but tossed his head in displeasure since I had no food for him. Tom convinced him to eat a bit of grass from him but apparently the grass I plucked wasn’t tasty enough. But I was the only one who got cow nuzzles!

Oh I almost forgot the best part. I ate at the restaurant afterwards with the GMU group that went and the server asked me what I wanted to eat in Gaelic. Now, he asked everyone else what they wanted in English. I assuming I just didn’t understand the accent at first asked “What” and he repeated, in Gaelic, we did this two more times to each other before I looked at Tom for help. Tom explained that he wanted my order, and then we both had a Ah-HA moment and he switched back into English for me. But hey, I’m just that Irish that I look like I know Gaelic. Too bad I don’t. Tom surmised that it might have also been what I was wearing a traditional Aran sweater and no rain coat.

NUI - The Quad

2009-06-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

This is the oldest building on campus. You can also hear the gathering of the birds. Surprisingly their numbers grow much larger at night, so this is just a few of them.

Cill Mhic Dhuach

2009-06-30T11:38:00.001-07:00

This picture was actually taken from the bus as we were pulling up. As you can see its pretty much surrounded by cattle. I've seen more cattle than sheep in Ireland. I don't know if this is considered "common land" or not, but basically if it is common land then its owned by the government but you can put livestock on it for free and let them graze. Turns out the land behind the place I am staying at is common land- which is why the horses are out there. The biggest problem I see with this is the family I live with doesn't know who owns the horses... and I'm not sure the government does either. So if there was a problem with an animal like it got sick or something, I'm not sure the owner could be easily contacted.

This is my Irish Literature teacher talking about the round tower and the monks. He didn't know I was filming him- shhhh! Oh and never mind the loud mooing in the background- there were a lot of cattle about.

This is just kind of cool. Ireland has all sorts of crazy stairs for getting to the other side of stone walls. This one I climbed over to get a better look at the house pictured below. Of course cattle were on the other side of the wall... which was also fine until one of the girls decided she wanted her picture in front of a cow. Which after an angry glare from the cow, the picture was taken a good distance away. I however hopped right back over the wall just in case it didn't go so well that the cow wouldn't be angry with me as well. All turned out well though, she got her picture and the cow didn't charge or anything.

Yes, those are graves inside the little ruin of a house. I'm not sure if they were there when it had a roof or not.

More graves at Cill Mhic Duach. Note the really awesome and seriously old Celtic crosses

The round tower of Cill Mhic Dhuach

The round tower and ruins of Cill Mhic Dhuach

This was just awesome! On the building you can see there is some sort of plaque explaining the importance of the ruin- and the cow is using it to scratch her face- just delightful!

This man was herding his cows near the round tower. I thought this was pretty awesome. He really looked like he could have used the help of a herding dog but he was doing alright with it. You can't hear it on the video but he was making a high shhhh noise at them.

Coole Park

2009-06-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

Again, these pictures are from last Saturday's trip

This is what Coole House looked like before it was torn down.

This is the ONLY water fountain I have seen in all of Ireland. Its also the prettiest little water fountain I have ever seen.

These are the orginial stables for Coole House. So while the house was destroyed the stables were left standing. Now they have bathrooms and a little diner in them. I had the vegetable soup and garlic bread. The soup was creamy, different and tasty.

This is my favorite part of Coole park- where you "park" your dogs. Tee hee. I guess Robin and I would have to explain our meeting at the dog park a little differently in Ireland. This is right out side of the stables/resturant.

The Irish are very proud of these deer. England killed all of Ireland's deer so they are a rarity to see here. Apperently the Anglo-Norman Protestant Landowners kept deer parks (they are completely stone walled in) for hunting purposes. These deer are quite fortunate that they are safe and will be for the rest of their lives, unlike the poor deer herds before them.

This is the famous tree with all the signatures and the rest of the people from the university.

This is the area where Lady Gregory's friends used to play cricket.

Thoor Ballylee - View from the top

2009-06-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

This is a video from the top of the castle of Thoor Ballylee. Please note the very tiny door I had to come out, I wasn't quite sure I was going to make it through. Great view. Worth going up the scarecase to get there.

The Scarecase of Thoor Ballylee

2009-06-29T13:13:00.001-07:00

This is a video of me going down the stairs of Thoor Ballylee. I'm convinced that the stairs were all different heights. Sometimes I had to crouch down to get the railing before stepping down. It was SCARY, yet oddly fun.

Thoor Ballylee

2009-06-29T10:49:00.001-07:00

This is my Irish Literature Professor.

So here is the famous Thoor Ballyee. The little stone wall you see in the first picture is actually a bridge.

Here is what said bridge looks like. This is taken from inside the castle, looking out a window.

Here is me sitting in the window the the previous picture was taken from.

Ah yes the TINY door.

Me outside of Thoor Ballylee

Saturday 6/27/09 Irish Literature Field Trip

2009-06-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday I went on a Irish Literature field trip. We ventured off to the first castle I’ve ever seen. Yeats lived there for about 3 years to be close to Lady Gregory. The castle’s name is Thoor Ballylee. It was built in the Norman-Anglo design which means it’s basically a big rectangle. Not the prettiest of castles. Since then I’ve seen a few more of similar design. It seems the Irish are not fond of these castles because they represent the British rulership of their country. Many of them were burned out during an attack at one point or another. The rest are being left to fall to ruin unless they are of significant importance or a tourist attraction. I’m pretty sure the only reason why it still stands is because Yeats once lived there and composed poems like the “The Winding Stair”.

The stairs by the way were very winding and very scary. I took a video of me going down the stairs, will be uploaded shortly. Yeats lived there with his wife and two young boys. I can’t imagine thinking that the castle would be a good idea for children after seeing the staircase.

Anyway, after that we went to Coole park. The Coole property is where Lady Gregory used to live. She founded the first Irish National Theater. She was well known with the famous and powerful- she had a fan with famous signatures as well as a tree that had the initials of famous writers carved on it. She was part of a highly wealthy land owning protestant population which wasn’t much liked by the native Irish. The native Irish had to pay fees to farm on the land. Anyway, she lost much of the land and power due to reforms in Ireland. Eventually the after her death the Irish government owned the property, sold it to a private contractor, who tore down the house and used the materials in other building projects. They felt they were doing the country a favor by getting rid of it.

However the house foundation is still there, as is the deer park (these are rather special because the English killed off all of Ireland’s deer), the gardens and the tree with all the signatures. It’s now owned by the Park Service who fixed it up as a tourist attraction. It also had the only water fountain I have seen in ALL of Ireland. I took a picture. I’ve been told by other students that campus does have water fountains they are just especially hard to find.

After that we went cill mhic dhuach, which were old monastic ruins. They had a large tower that was probably used for two purposes- 1) so people could find the monastery and 2) so the monks could climb into it for safety if someone tried to plunder the monastery. It had many old graves. Some of the graves are new because if their other family is buried there then you have a right to be buried near your family, so some are new. There were lots of cows wandering around the site. Also I took a video of a man herding a lot of cows with a stick.

So that was the Saturday trip and I will write about the Cliffs of Moher a little later, which was the Sunday trip.

NUI - National University of Ireland, Galway

2009-06-26T02:55:00.000-07:00

This is one of the campus buildings. As you can see with the staircase they favor modern design concepts.

This is the gym. Apperently it has an indoor swimming pool though I haven't seen it. I also forgot to pack my swim suit. Anyway I could join for not too much but I probably won't because the only thing I would use is the swimming pool. And if I go swimming I'd rather do it in the ocean.

This odd looking thing is the most important landmark in the entire school (for me at least). This is right outside the building that ALL my classes are in. Being as I am often lost I am sooooo happy when I see this! It's the "YAY I know where I am now!" point. From here I can get home, to galway city, the library, the college bar, the bookstore, the Cafeteria and a little snack stand I often buy pop and muffins at.

One of the cooler buildings I have seen on campus. Its the marine science building.

This is just a really good example of what most of the buildings around campus look like. Almost every building has a little glass walkway that connects it to another building.

Signs

2009-06-26T02:37:00.002-07:00

This is one of the the directional signs for the school. As you can see its written in Gaelic above and English below. This is true for about everything on campus- like the no smoking signs etc.

This is one of the street signs, again you can see the Gaelic above and English below. All the street/highway signs are like this. Nifty.

Yes, even the trash cans have Gaelic writing on them. They are also kind of oddly shaped so you you have to fold your trash to get rid of it. All of the trash cans on campus are ones were you step on it to get the lid to open. They are not as big as american trash cans either.

The Sailboat at Galway Bay - This is for you Robin!

2009-06-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

A Full Circle View of Galway Bay

2009-06-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

Wednesday Galway Shopping

2009-06-25T14:27:00.001-07:00

So today I got lost on the way to class. So I was a wee bit late for Irish History. The guy next to me was falling asleep though, so it could have been worse. I so don’t blame him jet lag sucks. After class I took a two hour nap, which was lovely.

Then I went to the school bookstore. It is really tiny compared to VCU or GMU bookstore. They ran out of two of the books I need for my Irish lit class but hopefully they will have more in on Monday. This Saturday is my Lit Field trip to County Clare and South Galway.

I watched the Quiet Man in the theater today. First time I ever saw it. It was cute and kinda quirky.

After that I went into town to look for a belt and a watch. I discovered Galway bay- GORGEOUS. There was a little sail boat too, so of course I thought about Robin. For those who don’t know Robin really wants to buy a sailboat. Anyway, it was lovely. Nice coastal breeze. I found the Galway Museum. I’ll have to go back when it is actually open.

It always bothers me in America when I go to an Irish restaurant and there are things like cheeseburgers on the menu. Being in Ireland, isn’t much different from that. Every pub I have been to (which isn’t many at this point) has burgers and plays American music. There is a taco restaurant, American fast food restaurants, and Asian restaurants.

There is an awful lot of American music here. Seems most of the radio stations play what you would hear in the states and most of the stores play American music too. I walked into a Music store that was playing Irish music on the outside, had a big sign that said “Traditional Irish Music Sold Here!”, had a wall of Irish music artists, Irish films and Irish T-Shirts and inside the store they were playing American music!!! Very strange.

I was hit on by an Irish guy today. I was asked out for a bit of pint. Tee hee. His name was Conner. Seems he had lost his shirt in the river, quite literally. He showed me the way into town and no, I didn’t go out for a pint. I did tell him I had a very wonderful man waiting for me in the states. Conner wasn’t the most elegant of sorts because his opening line to me was “Are you the American girl I saw yesterday in the really short skirt?” Ah, no, haven’t worn a skirt here. Not the best opening line. In truth I think he did think I was some other girl he had talked to a few days ago.

When I was in town I turned into an alley to look in a store window and discovered it was not an alley- but a mall! A two story mall! I’ll post pictures, its one of those things you have to see to believe. In America you just can’t accidentally walk into a mall and not know it.

Reception at the College Bar! (6/23/09)

2009-06-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

The outside view of the the building the college bar is in. Quite pretty.

All us GMU folks hanging out on the balcony

View of the bar from the balcony. They had pool tables on both the lower floor and the balcony. Kind of a side note, but I've been informed that in Ireland the 1st floor is called the "ground floor" and the second floor is called the "1st floor".

The patio area of the reception

The view of the river from the patio area.

This was just kind of cool. He was clearing the glasses off the tables and stacked them taller than him to carry them.

My Room!

2009-06-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

I get my own bathroom! And its got more hot water than my house in Richmond!

This is the window I can see the horses out of. Its a huge window. Thats a picture of me and Robin : ) The other frame is a mirror that came with the room.

Look all my clothes are put away!

1st Day of School

2009-06-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

So I am taking Irish Lit and Film and Irish History. Both lectures seem like they are going to be pretty cool. Still need to buy school books and a watch. Normally carry around the cell and use that to figure out the time, but since the cell doesn't work here, a wrist watch would be helpful.

The sun rises super early. I woke up at 8am because I could hear the two children that live here. Others told me the sun came up at 5am. It doesn't really get dark here until 11pm. That’s a lot of sun.

The weather is beautiful. As all you VA people know, humidity is a killer in VA. Here when it is hot it is also dry, no humidity, its lovely, warm but not sweaty. There was a nice gentle breeze today too. I’ve been told the weather is rather unusual. I only saw the tiniest bit of rain in Dublin, and none since I arrived in Galway. My host family thinks it is probably warm enough to swim in the ocean and offered to drive me and my roommates there. We had to decline because the day was booked full with classes and the reception. Last year about this time, I am told, it was raining every day and everyone was soaked. I hope the weather holds up like this.

The reception after classes was not what I expected. I envisioned cloth table clothes and horderves. But I also work at VCU Center for Corporate Education who throws receptions for business people quite often. And this was a reception for college students. First off it was at the college bar. Yes, the college bar, you know, the one on campus inside a school building- ha! They gave us two drink tickets. I got a hard raspberry cinder. Quite good actually. They had drinks on tap and bottled everything. There was loud techno music. There was a sitting area, then a balcony, where myself and the other GMU folks sat, and also a little patio that had a view of the river. I saw kayakers float pass. There were also people who brought about large plates of sandwiches, chicken, sausages, and eggrolls on a large platter to each table. All were quite tasty.

The campus is more modern than perhaps you would envision. Much of the town also has modern architecture. Pictures will be posted soon.

Everyone in Ireland has been especially friendly. There are probably about 100 Americans in this program. There are also people from other countries touring around Galway.

I went on my first trip into the town today. Its awesome. Several street performers, though one group only seemed to know two songs. Most of the clothing/other stores close down at the latest around 7. So everything was closed when I got there. However the streets were still teeming with people. The pubs and night clubs close much later and have staggered closing times so you can go from one place to the other.

The river that runs through Galway is just beautiful. I saw several swans, baby ducks and black faced seagulls. Men were standing in the river fishing as the sun began to set.

My host family has informed us that there are no misquotes in Ireland. There are however HUNDREDS of moths. They only appear at night and hover around the tallest objects. Being 5’11 I was quite unhappy to find their attraction to me, but they went away as soon as I got around a tree or a wall. Could have been worse, three of them fell down a girl’s shirt who I was with today. She was quite frantic to get them out.

There were also tons of crows. At least I think they were crows. Again these only appeared at night, flew around a church and into the trees. They were so loud it was almost deafening.

I’ve seen two feral cats around campus and they are not eartipped, sadly.

Horses!

2009-06-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

These are two of the three horses you can see from my bedroom window in Ireland! The smaller one in the foreground is a wee little foal.

A larger view of the horses from my window