Oh! The Places I've Been!

Oh! The Places You'll Go!

Congratulations!

Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

- Dr. Suess :)

Well, hello! It has been a wonderful couple weeks, and I have been so many places since my last post! Weekends in The Ring of Kerry, Galway, and Dublin, and day trips in Cahir, Cashel, and Blarney! I have certainly been scoping out the landscapes of Ireland, but at the same time I have been hard at work with school. My Dad created a "half-way" point for my stay here in Ireland, and I believe the exact date is March 24th. I cannot believe that already 2 and a half months have flown by, and I only have 2 weeks of school remaining. I have an entire month off in April for Easter and "studying" (aka travelling), then two exams during the month of May. There are many places to see, things to experience, and lessons to learn. I often pinch myself to make sure I really am here. It's an incredible blessing to be here! Let me share with you where I have been this past month :)

...My apologies on the length...it is quite a lot to read. Next time i will be updating more frequently and with a smaller word count! ;)

In February I went with my school to the Ring of Kerry. The Ring of Kerry is a heritage trail that takes you through the little towns and coastal cities in County Kerry. It is known to be one of the most beautiful areas of Ireland, and it certainly lived up to its reputation! We stayed at a hotel, had wonderful food (that I didn't have to cook myself!), and took a bus tour and walked all around the countryside. I met lots of American students, went to a Ceili!! (it's like Irish line dancing with partners and in a huge group) and enjoyed the nice weather. Our hotel was in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, then we traveled on the bus to many places: Killarney, Killorglin, Valentia Island, saw the Skelligs in Ballinskelligs from the coast (they are two historical rock islands off the coast...monasteries have been found there dating to very early Christian times), Portmagee, Caherdaniel, Derrynane (the home of Daniel O'Connell, the famous "Irish Catholic liberator"), and many other small towns! Some of my favorite parts of the trip were when we got to explore the stone forts we stumbled upon! I also loved seeing ruins of castles on the beach, hearing the Atlantic ocean waves, and feeling the misty wind on my face. It occurred to me that this same ocean touched my homeland!! Truly amazing :)

After the Ring of Kerry weekend trip, I went on a day trip to Cahir Castle and The Rock of Cashel. I went with the campus ministry here at UCC, and it was a very nice day! The castle was fun to explore, and there were many historical facts about it. It was originally built in the 1100's, and the recent design is from the 1840's. So cool!! The Rock of Cashel is also known as "St. Patrick's Rock" and is believed to be the place where the King of Munster was converted to Catholicism and baptized by St. Patrick in 400 A.D. The fortress is absolutely magnificent and is quite large! The view of the land surrounding the rock is truly incredible, and no matter how many pictures I took I could never capture the fullness of its beauty!! The structures we saw were partially in ruins; what remains is from the 12th & 13th centuries. That day, I met a family from Maine! We thought they were American, and they kept looking at us like they thought we were Americans too. So, to meet them, my friend and I asked if they could take our picture in front of the Rock. It was a great plan! :) Plus, they had very nice looking sons and they were going to school in the Northeast too! It was a wonderful plane.

I also went to Galway City at the end of February! It is such a small city, and much different than Cork. I really like the atmosphere! I went on this trip with the campus ministry from UCC again, and I met and made great friends here!! Since then, I got together with some of the girls and we had a girls' night with brownies and Disney movies :) We took a day trip to Connemara, (in the northern/coastal part of County Galway) and toured Kylemore Abbey and the Connemara National Park. Both were beautiful! While we were walking through the national park, it started to sleet and rain and hail and snow! Quite an adventure! We just kept singing and walking and laughing as the wind and rain wrapped all around us. Of course, once we got back to the bottom of the mountain and climbed into the bus, the precipitation stopped. :) That night after a nap and dry clothes we went out to a lovely pub and enjoyed each other's company and singing abilities, and we found a place called Coyote! It had the American flag plastered on the ceilings, country music playing, 80's music and a mechanical bull!!!! It was such a cool place!! I absolutely HAD to try the bull riding, because I had heard so much about it from my friends. It was quite a sight to see, and only after trying it did I discover the trick to holding on. I lasted 2.3 seconds ... not even one full rotation! I didn't care that I was bad at it, I just knew that if I hadn't tried it, I would have regretted it :) This just means that I will have to attempt riding it again back home! hehe

The next day we walked around the city, and I bought a Claddagh ring, since this was the site of the original Claddagh jewelers! Unfortunately the shop was closed and we couldn't go in to see the museum, but there were many vendors selling this type of ring. The bus ride home was very relaxing, and I was quite happy to be back in my little "home", Cork.

Last week, in between classes, I took a day trip to Blarney Castle, and kissed the Blarney Stone!! I heard that the locals pee on the stone during the night, but then again I knew I would have been sad if I hadn't bent backwards over the castle wall to participate in the classic Irish tradition. The stairs up to the top of the castle were winding, narrow, and seemed to be growing smaller as I climbed higher. The grounds around the Castle were very nice as well, and I saw signs of springtime! Flowers of all kinds were sprouting from the ground; it looked like Easter!

Dublin was my trip last weekend, and I went with two other friends for our return debut. We met up with one of our friends from back home! She is the athletic trainer for the Yale rugby team and they were on tour in the UK. It was nice to see her and give her a big hug!! We briefly met the team, and we had planned on going to a game but because we got lost and delayed on our way to the city, we missed it. :( It worked out for the better, because we were able to spend an entire day with her on Saturday and enjoyed watching an Ireland rugby match from one of the local pubs in Dublin! The official website for the rugby games: http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/home.php and the highlights of the weekend!!!: http://www.rbssixnations.premiumtv.co.uk/page/RBSSixNations/0,,12785~1946803,00.html The Ireland team beat the Wales team by 27 to 12, and being in the pub to watch the game was quite an experience!! It felt something akin to a series with the Red Sox versus Yankees! Such an exciting game and it was truly nice to spend time with friends in that atmosphere. Not to mention that the food was amazing!!! (Rev. Uncle Andre you were right! The pub food is really tasty!) During the weekend, I bought an Ireland rugby shirt...not the official jersey because it was really expensive, but still a rugby shirt :)

I have loved travelling these past month, and I am looking forward to this next weekend for studying for my finals before I head out again into the big, wide world. I'll be sure to tell you about my St. Patrick's Day experience in Ireland!

Talk to you soon, mariss

London!!

Last weekend I took a weekend trip to London with one other friend, and we had a really great time! Since it was the two of us, it was really nice to pick and choose the sights to see, and the things we wanted to skip.

We started out on Thursday morning with our hiking backpacks, took a 2 hrs bus to Shannon Airport, checked in, went through security and waited the two hours for our flight. While we were in Shannon airport we saw U.S. Army Men!! My friend and I were so touched to see them there, in their uniforms, and proudly wearing the Stars and Stripes. We went up to them (I was quite teary eyed at this point...typical) and thanked them for their service to our country and all they do to protect us. He was very moved, and so happy we had said that to him. We chatted for a bit. Come to find out, he was from CT and had gone to Yale as a grad student!! A little bit of home :) I know it definitely made my day, and I'm sure it made his too.

We boarded the plane, flew 55 mins to Heathrow and landed quite safely and in good weather.

By the time we got off the plane, it was around 7, and we made our way down to the Tube. (London's underground subway!) I was sooo confused and had absolutely NO idea where we were trying to get to, or what would be the fastest and/or cheapest option. I didn't think I could EVER master the system or be able to confidently find my way around. (I had never really taken any trains/subways back home...that was too much city for this little country bumpkin) ;) Nevertheless, at the end of the weekend, I almost knew the Tube like it was the back of my hand and I was very sad to leave it behind.

After the hour Tube ride from the airport to the stop for our hostel, we found ourselves outside the city, still slightly discombobulated as to where our hostel was located, after sunset and also raining. Thank you Tante Lise for the waterproof backpack cover!! It definitely came in handy this trip :) We walked up the road still trying to find out hostel, and after asking for directions from a business company, we finally found our way. Come to find out we had walked past it several times haha.

The hostel itself was an old mansion that had been converted into a lovely place. We were in the basement in a 12 person all-female room, but that was fine with me because we were next to the hostel owned restaurant and pub! :) It made for a very short walk to breakfast in the morning! The whole atmosphere of the place was so welcoming and there were lots of great gathering rooms, TV rooms and couches, and also computers right when you walked into the lobby. It was very easy to meet people and be friendly. We met two very nice Canadian girls who were traveling all around Europe, and it was so nice to share stories and get to know them! I also met a couple guys from France when I was waiting in line for the computers, and they were very nice too!

Every morning at breakfast we would snag a couple extra pieces of toast, peanut butter, and jelly, and pack our lunches for the day! I forgot to bring a purse/bag with me so that meant I stuffed my pockets with my sandwiches, orange, and other snacks. Hehe it was quite a sight. But then again, I didn't need to carry any bags, so that worked out well. Day 1 (Friday) we set out bright and early to see the city. We took the Tube, got off and walked around to the Tower of the London, Tower Bridge (I thought that was London Bridge so I skipped across it and sang "London Bridge is Falling Down"...only to find out that it was the wrong bridge), walked along the Thames River, and went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre!! The Globe was one of my favorite parts of this trip! We spent almost half a day inside! We had a tour guide who lead us into the theatre and told us the history of the place & about Shakespeare's time period. Unfortunately this wasn't the original Globe Theatre, but it was an almost exact replica and was placed about a block away from the original site. After the tour we took our time walking around the exhibit, pretending to be actresses & practicing play lines, looking at the costumes and scenery, and my friend got to be dressed up in Shakespearian clothing!! There was a balcony too, so I pretended to be Juliet calling out and waiting for my Romeo. Haha It was so much fun, and I left the place feeling inspired to read more of Shakespeare's works!

We also took a little detour to a store called "House of Fraser" because we saw "On Sale Now" signs out front!! So we window shopped, and we both decided to buy something...after all it's London! So I bought a fun shirt/dress....and it was only 9 pounds! It was initially 45 pounds, so it was an awesome deal... plus it was from London :) Gotta love bargains!!

We got back on the Tube to head home for the night, when we saw that there was a stop all the way at the end of "Piccadilly Line" and the stop was called Cockfosters. My friend wanted to take a picture of her next to the sign at the stop, so we rode the tube all the way to the end, then realized it wasn't a great section of town to be in. It was dark out, after suppertime, and the Tube was practically deserted so we quickly took a picture, then hopped on the tube heading back into Central London. We made it back to our hostel, ate dinner, then took a much needed nap. That night, we went to the hostel's pub with our 2 Canadian friends, and then out to a cute little club down the street. I can now officially say that I have been to a club/pub in two countries...but none in my own. Haha.

Day 2 was a great day as well. Seeing as it was Saturday, there were many more tourists in the city, and this made getting from one place to another rather tricky. We started off the morning with our packed lunches&snacks at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards, and while we were standing in the crowd, we met 10 or 12 University of Delaware students!! I noticed them (the guys anyway lol) because they were wearing black North Face jackets, and had yellow Timberland Construction boots. So I definitely knew these were not European men...they were Americans hehe. Then I heard their accents (or lack of) and we asked where they were from, and made small talk, etc. I guess I realize how much I miss Americans...the guys talk all the time, and it's about nothing...but at least its talking about something! It really made my day to hear them talking about familiar things...like how one guy thought the symbol on the horse blanket looked like the Green Bay Packers emblem. It was really funny. So after about 2 hours of waiting & standing for the ceremony, my friend and I left the Palace because it was freezing that day, and standing in one place for so long had left our feet frozen. We walked down the Mall, through St. James' Park, and ended up behind Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We took candid shots in the little red phone booths, and stopped to have lunch in a cute park. As we were eating, we saw a church to our right, and wondered what famous place that could be. (Keep in mind it was one of those days where my head was in the clouds...and I really wasn't all there...) So we ate our lunch, then walked across the bridge to go to our River Tour. Little did we know, that we had sat in front of Westminster Abbey....and didn't go inside. That is probably my only regret about this trip :( Our river cruise was very nice, and it was a very sunny day out on the River Thames. They took us down the Thames underneath the bridges, and we went from Westminster to London, and back. It was absolutely freezing after our cruise, and we were shaking from the cold, so we decided to go back for the day to our hostel. We ate supper, then went on an adventure to go to Mass that night! (So we could have more time in the morning to check out & get to our flight.) The place where we wanted to go was about a 40 min walk, and I didn't know exactly where it was. I asked the hostel manager where this place was, he gave us directions and told us that it was a perfectly safe walk, even at this time of night. To save time, we took a bus, then walked through a city that looked and felt like New Haven, CT. Aka not a good place to be just two girls walking. However, we made it safely to Mass, and it was a lovely little church! Afterwards, we took our first and only London taxi home to our hostel because we did not want to go through the hassle of the bus and the unsafe city.

I spent that night packing for our trip home and went to bed nice and early. The next day, I had hoped to find Drury Lane ... where the Muffin Man lives! Unfortunately we didn't get to go there. Instead we went to Abbey Road!! Of course we had to take pictures next to the street sign, and a picture as we were walking across the street....like the famous Beatles album cover :) Let me tell you, it was quite treacherous!! Those Beatles must have had the street blocked off for their photo shoot because there were so many cars that were driving down that road. My friend and I literally had to sprint across, pause long enough for someone to take our picture, then run the rest of the way to safety. It was a great end to our sight seeing. We boarded the Tube, arrived at the airport with 3 hours to kill before our flight, and made a pit-stop at a restaurant called "Giraffe." Here we decided to spend the rest of our British pounds on Nachos, Melon-Lime Daiquiris, and a Rocky Road Sundae!!! Salty, sweet, and chocolaty. Mhmm it was very yummy and exactly what we needed :)

After we had finished we went to our boarding gate, then took a little coach bus to our average sized plane in the middle of the runway. I had never done that before...boarding the plane by walking up the steps, so I felt like the President or important person lol.

The flight home was great too, and our bus back to Cork was pleasant. I am soooo happy to be back in Ireland! London was certainly a fun time, but not my favorite place in the world. It had a different atmosphere, and definitely less "homey" and welcoming than Ireland. I think I can officially say that I am now able to call my dorm & Ireland home :) It's a great feeling! Once I develop my disposable camera, I will be able to show you all the pictures from the weekend!

To Dublin we will go!

Hello All!

It has been busy these past couple weeks with classes and the arrival of homework (finally!!), but I do want to tell you all about my trip to Dublin! I traveled with 3 of my very good friends and we had such an amazing time! :)

Seeing as my classes end early on Thursdays, and I had no Friday classes (except Physics lab which happens every other week) my friends and I decided to take a 4.5 hr bus ride to Dublin on Thursday afternoon! My bag filled with Peanut butter sandwiches, cheese sticks, cereal, "Let's Go Ireland" handbook, my trusty notebook, and camera, we set off on our first weekend trip! At first I was so nervous to leave our little Cork City that I had become so familiar with in the past 2 weeks, but once on the bus, my nerves left and instead I felt like jumping up and down in excitement!! We were going to explore! Yippee! I was so glad to see green Ireland during the bus ride through the countryside! The picture on the front of my blog is from that bus ride! At some points I could not tell I was in Ireland, because it looked so much like home! There would be rocky hills on either side of the highway, then it would become rolling green hills with brush and bushes as property dividers, then little farms would appear with sheep, horses, and cows! Then just as suddenly as the green hills appeared, they would disappear into the fog, and all I could see was the wooden fence just a couple meters from the side of the highway. What truly made me feel like I was home were the evergreen forests...on and on they stretched...then suddenly melted into the fog. Now I know why people fall in Love with Ireland - it is so delicate and peaceful, yet alive and strong. There is a sense of wildness to it all! I still can't believe I am here, experiencing these things...it is truly a once in a lifetime experience! During the bus ride I wanted to nap, but all I could think of was the Aerosmith song, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" ... didn't sleep because I didn't want to miss anything of Ireland.

So, we continued driving along, passing through County Cork, County Tipperary, County Kilkenny, County Laois, County Kildare, and finally County Dublin! Throughout the trip we probably encountered 20 "roundabouts" or traffic circles/rotaries. I wish they had signs like we have in the states to caution large trucks as they go around the corners. (A yellow diamond sign and on it is a truck is tilted sideways going on the curve). My Mom always laughs at those signs (and now I do too) because all we can envision is the truck doing a wheelie and making this squeaky noise as they drive around the corner. Anyway, I kept thinking of those little signs and it made me laugh. There certainly were many opportunities for those signs during the bus ride Haha.

We finally entered Dublin city, found our hostel (which was right in the main area of the city) and checked in. Our hostel was very nice, clean, and everyone very friendly. We four girls stayed in a 12 female dorm room...and it was so cool! We did not experience the typical horror stories that everyone is used to hearing about hostels, and it was truly a great time! That Thursday night (night #1) we ate at "ThunderRoad Cafe" ... almost like a Hard Rock Cafe including a Bryan Adams Concert on huge TV screens, lots of lights, great food, and music memorabilia all around! After supper we went back to our hostel, and went out on the town in the Temple Bar area. Our first pub we walked into was THE Temple Bar, and it had a live guitar band playing!! So cool!! What was really surprising were the songs they were playing....we knew almost every single song! I had always envisioned the Traditional Music Sessions to be just that...Traditional Irish Music. But instead they had music we know and love (like OneRepublic...Apologize, Coldplay ... Yellow, and so many other songs!) At the pub I tried Smithwicks...and I definitely will not be having that again. It was great to try, but really preferred the Irish Cider...Bulmers! Me and my 3 friends met members of a local Dublin band, and unfortunately they knew how to flirt/sweet talk especially because they knew we were Americans. Two band members were really very nice, and quieter compared to the lead singer of the band. Oh man what an experience! He told us so many things about Dublin, and how he knew how to say hello, goodbye, flirt, and swear in so many different languages!! He said he learned these from girls he met...of course...and that was a clue to us of his character :) We tried to say goodbye, and I attempted to give them all high fives. Instead they looked at me weirdly, and grabbed my hand to kiss it...the "gentlemanly way" to say goodbye. They were also making fun of our different American accents, our slang, and especially the different southern accents. When we were finished talking with them and wanted to head out, they told us to go with them to another bar and hear more music because they absolutely LOVED being with us. Well, we decided that we four girls were heading out of the pub anyway, (and we still had our wits about us) so we walked down the main street with them and into another pub. This had a more eclectic crowd than Temple Bar, but still it was a great time. The band guys kept saying, "Ladies, enjoy yourselves...You're in Ireland!!!" We thought they were going to offer to buy us drinks (because that's what the U.S. guys do) but instead they asked us for money for THEIR drinks. We did not fall for their excuses of being "poor band members." It got to a point where they were getting really annoying, and it was not enjoyable to converse with them anymore. We finally left - to their dismay - and we prayed we would NEVER see them again. We walked back to our hostel laughing about the night, and happy that we had great stories to tell when we got back!

The next morning (Day #2) we got up for a free breakfast provided by the hostel. The reason I mention this is because the breakfast was in a little pizza place about 3 buildings down the street from the entrance of the hostel...and we used our hostel cards to unlock the pizza place. It was so random! After breakfast, we locked our backpacks under our beds, and explored for the whole day! We saw Dublin port, bronze statues of the Irish Famine, accidentally found a playground/park (which we initially thought was St. Stephen's Green) and took lots of silly pictures on the swing set and jungle gym. We walked through the shopping section of Dublin, went window shopping, and tried on sunglasses, picked out cute outfits, then laughed about the prices! (Mum always said I had great taste *wink*) We kept walking through the city, and found St. Stephen's Green, and it is absolutely beautiful!! I took so many pictures, but pictures do not even begin to show the beauty there! Throughout the weekend, we truly were the typical tourists with our cameras out at every opportunity...but we didn't care! We have great pictures to remember our Dublin experience :) We then kept exploring until we found Trinity College, looked into the Book of Kells bookshop (but did not get to see the actual Book of Kells), took a tour of Dublin Castle (a really cool fort that was inhabited by the British, had a throne room, ballrooms, beautiful artwork, and so much history and archaeology!!), and finally took a tour of the Guinness Factory at St. James' Gate!! Phew what a day that was! The Guinness factory was really a great experience, and of course we had a complimentary pint at the end of our tour. We enjoyed our foam mustaches at the "Gravity Bar" which is the top floor of the factory and had a great view of the entire city at dusk! That was probably one of my favorite parts of the weekend!! The pint o' Guinness was ok. It is of course it is the best at the factory, so knowing that, I probably wouldn't order it at a pub for 6 Euro (which = $9)...it just doesn't seem worth it. But I tried it!! And it was a great experience! After that, we were so hungry so we walked towards our hostel and got the "EuroMenu" at McDonalds!! That was probably the best choice for food that we had ever thought of that entire weekend...it fit our needs perfectly: cheap, quick, and enough to fill us for the night ahead.

That night (night #2) it was POURING with gale force winds, but we still went out to explore! We tried going to a different bar than the previous night (to try something new, but then also to avoid our 3 Irish band friends hehe). We ran into Sweeney's by the sheer necessity to get out of the rain, stayed to have a pint, then moved on to our favorite place in Dublin: THE Temple Bar. The previous night's bad experiences were totally wiped away because this night was so much better!! They had popular rock music playing over the stereos, and another live band. We danced and sang the night away there, and enjoyed the atmosphere. Hysterically enough, we saw our 3 Dublin band buddies there again...and at the same table as they had been the night before!! The band played for hours, and they played so many songs: U2, Sweet Caroline, country songs, Don't Stop Believing, I'm Yours, Empire State of Mind, Talk a Walk on the Wild Side, and so many others!! We had such a blast, and I would honestly go back to Dublin just for that pub :) I took a coaster as a souvenir, in hopes of adding it to my scrapbook of bus tickets and pub napkins.

Day #3, we explored only for a little bit to find St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was so beautiful! I only wish it wouldn't have cost anything to get in, but I suppose it is because it is a "historical place" - St. Patrick performed his first baptisms in the fountain just outside the Cathedral in the park. Amazing! Inside, I took lots of pictures and prayed at the "Lady's Chapel." This was my favorite place inside the Church because it was dedicated to Our Lady, and it also had the Magnificat prayer inscribed there. This prayer reminded me of the women's group back at school, and all that we do for each other during our struggles, and the amazing faithful support I can always count on :)

After the Cathedral, we took advantage of more window shopping on Grafton Street. We found all these beautiful wedding dresses, and dreamed about our futures hehe . . . Oh what fun we girls had! We then walked back into town and had Starbucks for lunch, then boarded our bus back to little Cork City!! On the ride home, I definitely needed a nap, and it was dark so I couldn't see the scenery anyway. The ride home went by so quickly, and before I knew it, I was back home in my little, clean, warm room, with over 200 pictures to show of my adventures and so many new memories.

This trip already has shown me that there are so many people, places, and things I have never seen in my entire life. I feel like I am just taking everything in, and I want to hold it in my memory and never forget any of this. To end, I'll leave you with David Cook's song, "Time of My Life." :) Here in Ireland, and during my college years, I feel that this is truly the "Time of my Life" and I am so blessed to be here! I'll be writing again soon!

Marissa