Part 2 of my Adventure

Today I said goodbye to my classmates, Lois, and Dave it was weird sort of being left here I guess...but I am so EXCITED to go to Aunt Kathy's and Peter's! I will be there until Friday night which I will be staying in a hotel by myself then getting up early to be at the airport! Then I will be on my way home! I probably will not have internet so please dont expect an update until like friday or saturday unless I post on facebook! Thoughts and prayers are welcomed for safe travels especially since at times I will be traveling around Ireland by myself! I will be safe though dont worry! Can't wait to share my adventure with you all! See ya!

A day of history, folklore, music, and dancing

Blog post for Wednesday: May 23.


The morning started with a visit to Trinity College to talk to the Department Head of the Computer Science Department. He answered many of the questions we had for him! I asked him a few questions about the student affairs aspect of Trinity College! He gave me a small glimpse into how the housing system works over here instead of Residence Hall Directors they are called....Wardens! He also gave us tickets so we could go see the illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells. It was really interesting looking at the book but it was disappointing because you could only see open open faced book page. After looking around and going up to the long room which is a library that is well long..we headed to lunch! Steven and I went to a small burger shack it was good! Then Steven and I walked around for a bit before heading over to the National Leprechaun Museum where we were meeting the group! 


I LOVE LEPRECHAUNS...so I was pretty EXCITED! Once we all arrived at the museum we met our tour guide who was very energetic to say the least! In the museum they had different rooms like you where traveling from the Leprechauns realm to the human world! Along the way our tour guide told us folklore stories of Leprechauns. In one of the rooms it makes you feel like your a Leprechaun they call it the Giants room and we all acted like 5 year olds and were running around climbing on things! At the end of the tour we were instructed to color a picture (mine is above I know FABULOUS RIGHT!). 


After splitting apart at the museum for free time Dave, Lois, and myself headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful and I loved the stain glass windows. We also went on a short 20 minute tour around the building and I learned so much! Speaking of learning what denomination do you think St. Patrick's Cathedral is........(if your anything like me your probably like DUH SARAH..ROMAN CATHOLIC)...well your wrong also its PROTESTANT! Yes, I will repeat myself just so you know its not one of my typos its a Protestant church. When our tour guide told us this I was shocked she said that a lot of people even in Ireland don't realize that its not a Roman Catholic church! I asked her why and she said that St. Patrick was spreading Christianity and Catholicism was not yet an area...that when it was time for someone to claim it the Protestants did.....now your mind is blown! 

During our free time I went souvenir shopping no joke I was probably in one store for like an hour and a half! I know thats a really long time..but I wanted to find my family and Austin the PERFECT GIFT! Hopefully I picked things they liked! After my shopping extravaganza I went back to the hostel to pack and make sure I gotten something for the individuals I needed to get things for! We then met as a group at 7:30 to go to Arlington Hotel. At the hotel they have a live traditional irish band and dance show with dinner. I was pretty excited about the show and it was so awesome! We listened to lots of irish songs and dances plus even enjoyed a wonderful dinner! One of the boys on the trip Benaiah even got to go up and dance with the Irish dancers which was really funny to watch! After the music and dancing finished we headed back to our hostel for the night! 

Off Off and Away to Northern Ireland

This blog post is from Tuesday: May 22, 2012.

                               

          Today we boarded the magical Paddywagon bus and were off off and away to Northern Ireland. Our first magical stop was in Belfast where we picked up tour guide Troy. Troy is quite a hilarious but unusual sort of fellow he is as he says a true irishman! After our quick stop in Belfast we were on the road again to the Carrick-a-Rede. Carrick-a-Rede is an island that is on a cliff and you travel on a rope bridge from another cliff to get there. This 30-meter deep and 20-meter wide chasm is traversed by a rope bridge traditionally erected by salmon fishermen. Troy told us about how people fall off or get so scarred they do not move on the bridge and lock up as he called it. He also informed of us if we fell how we would be eaten by a shark and hit lots of rocks on the way down! When Troy was telling us stories about Carrick-a-Rede I was like NO WAY AM I GOING ON THAT! 

        Once we got there and with a little peer pressure from the group I decided I would get a ticket...I mean I could always just go up there see it and then walk back I did not have to cross! On the long trek up there I just kept thinking you can do this...you can do this....then we came up to the straight shot stairs down to the bridge and I was like oh *** no I cant do this! With a little talk and a hit of courage I got on those stairs to go down to the bridge the entire time thinking what in gods green earth are you doing! I got down the 18 stairs to the bridge and I grabbed on to both sides of the bridge and began walking slowly but walking! Lois, Josh, and Kayla were on the other side cheering me on and Dave was right in front of me...I actually went to so slow that Dave got off and took a video of me! Its sort of a funny video I will have to get it but basically I am walking at a snails pace then it gets till the last 6 steps and I RAN off of it! Needless to say I was shaking slightly in the legs and the hands...Lois claims that was from the hike up there but I think it was nerves! I was so proud of myself once I got across and I was so glad also! The views were amazing!!! I kept thinking how god is an AMAZING ARTIST!     

           Well after I did not die and get eaten by a shark..we were on our way to lunch and Giants Causeway. Once we arrived at our destination Troy told us all to go into the pub order lunch then go down and see the Giants Causeway! I ordered a Steak and Guinness Pie after hearing a 5 minute speech from Troy on how they were the best thing you would ever eat in Ireland! After ordering at the pub I made the half mile trek to Giants Causeway. A quick background Giants Causeway is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns,  the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. There also many folklore stories of how the Giants Causeway came about which are pretty convincing themselves! The Causeway was like something I had never seen before..it looked like kids building blocks or similar to like someone just landscaped with tons of stones! It was very uniquely beautiful! 

         After enjoying our wonderful lunch we got back on the Paddywagon and headed to Derry. Derry is the second biggest city in Northern Ireland it is a very dirty, politically charged, historical town. The town is divided between the Catholic side and the Protestant side and they do not like each other and have feuded for years! Before going they told us to not where orange because we could be shot...orange stands for Catholic because they fly the Irish flag (green, white, and orange).  I don't know if we were in that bad of an area but you could definitely see how the side was divided it was literally dived by a river and a giant wall! They even call Derry different things by which side you come from and depending what you say they can tell if your Catholic or Protestant. Since Troy is Protestant I definitely heard a few Catholic slams that day! While taking our walking tour around the city we saw many "real ira" signs and graffiti...which is a gang! We also learned about Bloody Sunday and saw a monument for the people that lost there lives that day. Bloody Sunday is a day of violence in Dublin on 21 November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence in total, 31 people were killed – fourteen British, fourteen Irish civilians and three republican prisoners. After our tour we headed to back to the bus to stop off at a castle ruins it was gorgeous! We then went to Belfast to drop off Troy, and other people then headed back to Dublin! 

Last stop as a group Limerick Ireland

Today as a group we made our last and final trip to our last destination Limerick, Ireland. The morning started off with a three hour bus ride to Limerick from Dublin. To our surprise we were the only seven individuals on the bus which was nice because that meant we could really spread out. At this point in the trip I think we all need it...tensions run high at points! I think its just due to being with the same people almost 24/7 for 3 weeks! I know I needed the space because I have been extremely annoyed with some people and the space really seems to help but things into perspective.

Once we arrived in Limerick I had my last and final far haul of my heavy suitcase...I am lucky Aunt Kathy is coming to pick me up at the hotel so I don't have to drag them as far! Every time we have to lug those suitcase somewhere I think we all dread it! After lugging those suitcases on a plane, buses, trains, up stairs, downstairs, up hills, and just long distance I am very excited today was the last big day of hauling that bag around! I mean the airports are one thing but suitcases do not like cobble stone streets, or many other things so it makes it even more difficult! After walking to our uphill hotel we finally arrived at the Strand Hotel come to find out we cannot check in until after 3 p.m. and its like 10:45 am....so we dropped our bags off and walked back into town.

Our hotel is like a 5 minute walk across a bridge to shops in Limerick. After walking back to the heart of Limerick we broke off for lunch and shopping for two hours! I went to lunch with Dave, and Lois we went to a bakery called O'Conners. The shop is a small hole in the wall shop that serves delicious sandwiches and also has an array of desserts! After lunch I went off on my own which something I really needed! IT WAS WONDERFUL! I mean in all honesty all I did was walk around Limerick and look at some shops but mainly just walked around exploring! It was FANTASTIC!!! That hour or so of free time I had to myself was wonderful it really allowed me to just do things I wanted to do and not worry about anyone else but myself! I LOVED IT!

We then met up at 1:30 to walk to a bus stop to head to the University of Limerick. While we were on the bus a girl began talking to us and she is in her 2nd year as they call it over here of University. One of the boys asked her about her uniform she was wearing and she made a sad but funny comment to it...She said as more girls get pregnant the longer our skirts get...It was just a surprising answer but very honest! Once we arrived at the University of Limerick we waited for an hour to meet with the lecture lady we were meeting....while waiting I took a short nap on my hands! After the hour was up we headed to the building where we were meeting the Professor. The professor was from the Computer Science Department and other aspects of computers. Besides figuring out some of the differences in the education system, asking questions about housing and student affairs everything else went way over my head!

After our meeting with the professor was over we met up with a tour guide and her boss to have a campus tour. The tour lasted over an hour and a half it was very long but our tour guide was interesting. She is a 19 year old girl from Ireland who is doing a 12 month internship with the Study Abroad office. If our tour guide was not so interesting the tour would have stunk but we were asking her all kinds of questions and she answered them all. One question we asked her was about what sort of music does she listen to because in case you did not know they mainly only play American music in Europe! After asking her that question all of a sudden she starts talking about Biggie, Topaque, Kayne West, and Jay Z. She loved Jay Z the best part was when she started rapping in her thick Irish accent! Once our tour was done we caught a bus to the hotel, grabbed food and had the night to ourselves!

Our first day in Ireland

 

                                        Me trying my first Guinness at the Guinness Storehouse
       
         This morning I woke up in Ireland! How cool is that! I slept pretty well I felt pretty groggy this morning and my cold did not help that but I got up and got going...I actually got up to early by an hour! If you ask Austin or my Mom I am usually one of those people 10 min late or right on time never an hour early. Before this trip Austin got me a watch so I could tell time while abroad and it has made me so much aware of time! Which I think is a good thing because I have been early every day of this trip except two mornings because I had the wrong time and I was only 5 minutes late! I think thats a huge improvement and I am pretty proud of that! I actually have been the one waiting alot everyone in my group is always late and I am the one always on time or before time! Which I know I wont get points deducted for being tardy at least. David jokes with me all the time I am loosing points for stupid reasons thing like asking for the ketchup at the table or something silly...its sort of an on going joke between us.
          After waiting on the boys for 30 min we finally could have our meeting then get started with our day. The day began with a hop on hop off bus tour around the city of Dublin. One of the stops we got off at was Guinness Storehouse. It was really cool going around and seeing how the beer was made and at the end of the tour you got a free pint of Guinness in the gravity bar. The gravity bar is at the top of the Guinness Storehouse and has a panoramic view of Dublin which was pretty cool. I tried Guinness for the first time at Guinness lets just say I am not a fan at all of the beer! After guinness we got back on the hop on hop off bus and rode the rest of the way around until our hostile. We then had a short and sweet meeting and were released for the day to do whatever. Kayla, Lois, Dave and I all went to have lunch at Rockin Eddies a cute little 50's dinner. After lunch we separated and Kayla and I went and explored Dublin and went shopping. We went to this cute little store called Carolyn's and they had everything you could think of and more it was so cool! It may sound silly but I when I was shopping and looking around Dublin it all of a sudden hit me I am in IRELAND! I know I have been saying it but I was just in disbelief in that moment and literally almost cried (silly I know)....but I honestly did not know if I would really ever get the chance to come to Ireland and I just felt so unbelievably blessed and thankful!
          Once we got back to the hostel from exploring I decided to take a short nap since I know I needed it being so sleep deprived and sick. The nap was short but just what I needed. When I woke up I was going to go work on my budget and make sure I was on pace with everything.... and so I went to unlock my locker under the bunk beds... and I could not open the lock! I tried for literally 30 minutes before I texted Lois to help me. She and I worked on it for an hour more and in the end we had to end up getting bolt cutters. To bad the bolt cutters did not even phase my lock Kayla ended up twisting it all around and it finally broke not at the wire but she bent the metal. It ended up being a huge deal and we still don't know why my combination did not work correctly! Anyways after that Kayla, Dave, Lois and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe Dublin. This was my first time eating at the Hard Rock it was very good but expensive! After dinner we stopped by a grocery and grabbed a few things and then just hung out all night!

                                      A view from the Gravity Bar at the Guinness Storehouse
       

A taxi, two trains, a ferry and a bus I can officially say I am in IRELAND!!

Sunday: Trains, Fairy, and bus to IRELAND!!

         The morning started very early I got up at 5:30 a.m. and our taxis arrived at 6:40 a.m. to take us to Euston Station for the train. At Euston Station we grabbed breakfast and then boarded the train for Crewe. Two hours later we reached Crewe we then switched trains again to Holyhead! At Holyhead we boarded a BOAT to Dublin! I am so so EXCITED! This ship is HUGE once we dock I will be in IRELAND! I must admit everyone is probably getting tired of me saying “we are on a boat to Ireland” in a loud screechy girly noise! 

          After our 3 hour boat ride we finally arrived in Ireland! We than caught a bus then walked from the bus stop to our hostel. Our hostel is not as nice as the last one but not as bad as the frat house. There are so many different rooms in this hostel to hangout in including the rainbow room, shamrock room, cinema room, music room, hammock room, and a few others I cant think of the names of. After exploring the hostel for a little bit we headed out to Brazen Head which in Irish terms was 6 bridges away. Brazen Head is the oldest pub in the world the atmosphere was nice and homey. A great place to spend your first night in Ireland the food was good and we got to listen to an Irish band jam. It was pretty cool! After dinner we headed back to our hostel we were all very tired from our long day of travels and just wanted to hangout! 

Pictures of London

These pics are for Austin:

                                                                            Big Ben

                                                                   Sherlock Holmes!