Ireland


Travel Day – Saturday/Sunday June 22/23

Three best friends departed from the Atlanta International Terminal at 6:30 to get to Dublin, Ireland. Seven hours, one pasta dinner, three movies, and a freezing banana later, we arrived in Dublin at 7:30 in the morning. “This is the DAY THAT NEVER ENDS!” After going through customs, braving the torrential winds (in shorts), and following some unclear signs to a bus that says city on it, we finally got where we needed to be. Thank the Lord that the buses in Ireland have Wi-Fi. We found out where we were going and where to put our luggage for the day. We got off the bus, stop in at Burger King, get coffee, change into warmer clothes, and set off for this “internet café” that is going to hold our luggage. We arrive only 20 minutes before it opened and decided to waste time in the visitor’s center as well as plan on our morning in Dublin. Once we checked our bags in and got settled, we decided to stroll around and look at the many statues and architecture on our way to brunch at Kylemore. The deal that they were promoting was breakfast all day, 4 breakfast items for 5.95 euros. We thought that was a great deal until we saw the options and couldn’t pick four that looked appetizing. We settled with subpar French toast and Eggs. Determined to have a good morning in Dublin, we set off for Trinity College. We looked at all the cute shops, admired the architecture of the Bank of Ireland, took pictures at the river, and eventually stroll around the beautiful Trinity College. We decided that when we return to Dublin, we will definitely be taking the walking tour for 10 euros. We strolled some more, got our luggage, and boarded the direct bus to Galway. We almost missed the bus, but Kelsey had a keen eye and they kindly waited on us. We arrived in Galway and took a short taxi ride to our apartments, Gort na Coiriba, where our swipe keys for room 110 were waiting with our names on them. Soon after we checked out our room, our roommate entered. Her name is Beth and she is from San Diego; she attends a small university in California. She informed us about the people from the program that she has met and gave us the low down about downtown Galway.
We unpacked in our room. There is plenty of space with a desk, shelves, a dresser and a twin bed. We have huge windows and plenty of rom. After unpacking and decompressing, we headed to get some groceries and officially start our life in Galway. The rooms and the whole apartment were the perfect size for our stay here and all three of us were placed on the same floor sharing a bathroom which worked out great! Our 5th roommate arrived and is named Kilani (its Hawaiian); she is from Michigan. The whole room as well as the other CEA students decided to go out to dinner and drinks. We went to “The Kings Head”, which is a bar/restaurant that features live music starting at 9:30. We walked in a group of roughly 20 but split up when we got to the bar. Kelsey, Alex, Kilani, and I met and bonded with a couple from Wisconsin named Abba and Jake. We all tried Guinness and hated it, but the vegetable soup was absolutely delicious and very reasonably priced (5 euros). Alex had the Chocolate Coffee Cheesecake for dessert and said that she could eat it for the rest of her life. During our meal, we had two guitar players named Zillion serenade us with American music. The songs were beautiful and the singer was fantastic. We thought that it was hilarious that they wore an American flag shirt and a Chevy shirt. After a quick stop in the “Walmart” or in Ireland, Tesco, we headed to bed after a VERY LONG DOUBLE FEATURE DAY!


OH MY what a first day – Monday June 24, 2013

My alarm clock turned into Satan when I had to get up amidst the jet lag. Our CEA group met too early in the morning outside the accommodations to meet Brian, our site director. He took us to the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG)’s new Engineering Building for introductions and a quick power point on Irish culture and pointers. We took a tour of our beautiful campus and walked to the International Summer Program Office located in a gorgeous building called the Quadrangle. The Quadrangle building was supposed to be built in the University of Belfast located in North Ireland, however, the building blueprints were switched! Fun Facts. We walked past the student union, the concourse, the gym, and the library; I don’t know why I expected it to look so different than the colleges in America, but it looked almost like a green Auburn University!
After our campus tour, we walked to the center of town through the scenic route. The walk had so many stunning bridges, rivers, plants and flowers. We saw kayaks and people fishing; not to mention it was one of the most incredible days, so sunny and warm (for Ireland). We all had lunch at Finnegan’s. This quaint restaurant was built in 1589 and is a part of Historic Galway.  The restaurant delivered large portions promptly and at a reasonable price. I ate Goujons, which are similar to chicken fingers but have more the appearance of mozzarella sticks, with a delicious garlic sauce. Our conversation with Brian consisted mostly of sports and eateries in Galway.
After lunch, the group split up; we walked around shopping for clothes, shoes, and jewelry. In the middle of our power shopping session we met the other half of the group at the Townhouse Bar for a Blue Moon; we then separated once again for additional shopping. I found the love of my life in a store called Zerep. Zerep was having a closeout sale…and there they were, my 115 euro orange high-heels marked down to 20 euro. SOLD!! …to the best home, mine! After we became pooped from shopping we decided to walk down to the Spanish Arch. The name and hype was a little deceiving; it is a fairly normal looking arch by the river but is a critical part of the city. Spanish Arch was built in 1584 and wraps around the city; over time buildings have been built around this wall. It was cool to know that a wall that looked completely blended with the town was hand built almost two-hundred years before our country’s founding.
            For dinner we went back to the accommodations and made pizza before going out. Most of the CEA students were in search for the cheapest bar; we found a great spot. The Hole in the Wall has 2 euro bottled beer (mostly from Mexico ~ kind of like Corona)! I got this delicious Irish Cider entitled Bulmer’s ; we made some new Irish friends. We joked and bonded over our different accents and phrases. We got to know Luke and Furgal and hung out with them the whole night, at least while they were buying our drinks. When the Hole in the Wall closed around midnight we went to the nightclub called The Front Door. It was very busy for a Monday night; the club was playing great DJ music. There was not much dancing but it ended up being a good time. It was a long walk back to the apartments but it was very nice to go straight to bed.

The Importance of Caffeine and Leprechauns – Tuesday June 25, 2013

            After a rough and short night of sleep, we were all up and at ‘em again. The up and at ‘em is a little difficult for some of my roommates since there are no coffee makers in Ireland. I repeat, NO COFFEE. Only instant… gross. So we all walked to the University for Registration caffeine deprived for registration. The four International Summer Program staff at NUIG first greeted us and then gave us a large information packet with dates and times for the rest of the summer. We then went on another tour of the campus, this one being a little more specific. We learned the layout of the library, the wifi information, where the Starbucks and our classes are on campus, and how many drink vouchers we will get for the University Bar. Yes, you read that correctly… my school pays for me to drink. Wow. When the tour was over, we got a free tee shirt because it was NUIG’s 30th anniversary of the International Summer Program, yay.
            When registration was over, everyone was still dead tired from the night before so we headed for Starbucks to cure the caffeine headache. On the way we looked a little lost and a kind, old gentleman decided to walk us there. He was an Engineer and was very personable and kind to us. He even bought our coffee (even though it is cheaper here, it was so sweet) and gave us some thought provoking things to think about for the next hour. We sat in the campus Starbucks discussing everything from pharmaceuticals to Harry Potter. The conversation was serious and hilarious all at the same time, what is it about coffee that does that to conversations? Kelsey even decided to be super tweetable and hilarious after some coffee, thus naming this blog post about the importance of coffee.
            The lounging around from the coffee set the tone for the rest of the day. We went grocery shopping, then to the mall, watched “Despicable Me”, cooked dinner, caught up on some planning and journaling, and talked to friends and family back home. It was a great and well-needed night in our temporary home. The best part of the night, from my point of view, was the book that Timothy del Risco sent me before my trip to Ireland. We all finally read the homemade booklet filed with interesting Irish fact and loved it! Supposedly, Tuesdays are the days when the most rainbows are seen and June 25th is when the leprechauns come out. So today in particular, we were looking for that pot of gold and unfortunately never found it. But we will. We will.

Grandma Day - Wednesday June 26, 2013

We woke up bright and early for our Keynote Speaker and introductory classes. The only thing that killed my “first day of school” buzz was the fact that the Keynote Speaker could have been speaking Japanese and I would have been more interested. He spoke for an hour and a half about how each course relates to one another in the grander scheme of life; all I could think about was how my twitter timeline was slow because it was 4am in the States. After the midmorning snooze fest we went to our one-hour introductory courses. We first had Irish Art, taught by Fiona Gavin and Jenny McCarthy. For the first half of the course we learned about Early Irish Art and the different iconography, motifs, and symbols. The second half consisted of paintings and the history behind the story, whether it was a political statement or evoking of a certain feeling. The professors are characters and the class seems to be really interesting. The most exciting part of the course will be the field trip to Dublin on Saturday! After Art, we went to our Representing Ireland: Literature and Film class. The professor, Sean Rider, is from the University of Alabama, but is incredibly smart… I know, weird. Just kidding. The whole purpose of the class is to understand how “Irishness” is portrayed throughout time in Literature and Film. We are required to read Yeats Poetry, Irish plays, Dubliners by James Joyce, and The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe, while also watching four films: The Quiet Man, The Butcher Boy, Kisses, and The Dead. It seems like a very time consuming class but will be worth it in the end. For lunch we decided to go to a quaint Tea Room called The Light House. It is beautifully decorated and has seating both inside and outside (perfect for a beautiful day) and all of the food is home baked and vegetarian! It was a darling place and the food was YUMMY! I had spinach salad and a cheddar potato wrap that actually melted in your mouth (7 euro). We were sad to leave that nice restaurant, but had a few more hours to kill before our last class. We decided to have a full-fledged grandma day and go to the Cupàn Tae Room and have a spot o’tea in the afternoon. There were grandma floral decorations everywhere and the place was a bit crowded; we soon found out why! The tea was delicious. We got Chocolate Infusion, Elixir of Life, and Black Christmas tea to try. The Chocolate Infusion tea sounded better written in the menu than actually tasted; the Elixir of Life was my favorite and is also very healthy for the body. We didn’t want to leave but had to go back to campus to get our books for the semester. The library on campus is incredible. There are tons of books all of which are very accessible and organized. We found the books that we needed with little trouble and proceeded to the entire summer program’s Welcome Dinner.  When we arrived, they handed us free drink vouchers… yes, my school has a bar and they give us free drinks SO a.k.a its better than your school. We hung out for a while then began to wonder where the food was. Supposedly, there was a room in the back that had tables and food while some people spoke but we missed the whole thing. The silver lining was that somehow, we got the reputation of collecting the free drink vouchers so we had plenty for everyone. The free drinks and no food was not a good combination so we sent boys to grab us some extra platters of food. We were the last people in there just hanging out with the professors. We eventually left when all the drink vouchers and food were gone. Our night was filled with great music and dancing at The Front Door Bar. What a grand day!


Extreme Love Movies – Thursday June 27, 2013

            Sometimes it’s hard being away from loved ones in life but it only makes it worse when you watch romantic movies all day! At school, we listened to lectures about Yeats’ poetry and the symbols found in Early Irish Art. The classes are very interesting, but it’s hard to stay awake due to our sleep deprivation. After class, we were planning on napping and catching up on sleep, but instead ran errands and only got to sit for a few minutes before going back to school. We had our first film viewing for our Literature and Film class. After a few minutes of technical difficulties we had the pleasure of watching ‘The Quiet Man”… NOT! I cannot pretend to sugar coat how bad this movie was. It was a good idea; a love story of a Yankee and a ginger Irish woman in the beautiful scenic country of Ireland, but the execution was terrible. The scenes were awkward, long, and basically not edited at all. The main woman in the film was literally bipolar and would have these weird freak-out moments (that's what people get when they marry gingers); we decided to leave early because we were so hungry. We walked to downtown Galway and ate at Blake’s Bar & Restaurant. The food was delicious; they had a steak and pint special for 16 euro! I got the chicken wings with Irish farmed chicken and the special Blake sauce. The wings came out in this huge bowl with literally the entire wing oven baked. It was very interesting to watch me eat them, I’m sure, but the taste was well worth it! We stayed at Blake’s chatting about everything under the sun and trying each other’s food and was such a treat. We went further into town to meet up with some people and wound up getting gelato at Gino’s. I had the snickers mix and was very satisfied; the variety was amazing and everyone got something different. We all walked back to our accommodations and had a view of P.S. I Love You in Ireland (SO CHEESY AND CLICHÉ, I KNOW). We drank wine and cried through the only movie that never gets happy.

WAHO Gets Me Through – Friday June 29, 2013

            Some days we have class all day long, and instead of boring you with class lecture reviews, which I slipped in and out of sleep for, I am just going to say we had 4 hours of lecture today! Whew, too much. The only thing that got me through the day was our INCREDIBLE brunch at Mr. Waffle (like WAHO, but classier). It is a small restaurant that is connected to a Tesco (very casual), but it is reasonably cheap and has a great variety of breakfast foods. I had the Strawberries and Crème Waffle; it was sweet and crunchy all at the same time. Everyone loved their meal and we will definitely be returning for brunch on a long day again. That night, we went to Taffee Bar and The Kings Head. At Taffee Bar they had great traditional Irish music playing and the place was packed, but I think it was due to the small size of the venue. After deciding to leave and go to The Kings Head is when we started having so much fun! They had a band called the Bare Essentials playing; the band was great to dance and sing along with. The band members were not cute and dressed kind of weird, but the music held a wide variety from ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ to ‘Rolling in the Deep’, so everyone had something they liked. It was packed, like most places on the weekends, but it wasn’t too squished like some other bars get.

Dublin Field Trip – Saturday June 29, 2013

            This morning was a rough start with a 6am wake up call, but the field trip to Dublin was completely worth it! We went directly to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. The museum leading up to the book was amazing, filled with ancient pocket bibles and information how the Book of Kells was written on vellum with quill pens using iron gall ink. When we finally got to the book, it was opened to John 6 and Luke 23. We went up the stairs to “The Long Room” ancient library that was filled with beautiful books and busts of famous intellects. It was a beautiful sight to see that many old, preserved books. We went to the National Gallery of Ireland next to see the many sketches and paintings. There was a beautiful section of Jack B. Yeats work and an Expedition “From Galway to Leenane” of sketches by William Evans of Eton. The work was wonderful and unique; it was so neat to see sketches of places that we had been in Galway. We had free reign for lunch and decided to walk all the way to The Queen of Tarts that Kelsey has been begging to go to for a week. It was the most darling brunch place (they don’t serve lunch until 1). The omelets were wonderful and there were rave reviews from the “red sauce” that is served with the omelets. The best thing in the whole world was the Bailey’s Chocolate Chip Cheesecake that I had. We unfortunately did not get any tarts at the tart place, but the dessert was incredibly worth it! We met back up with the group just in time to go to the Ireland National Museum. The tour that our Art professor gave us was phenomenal and we saw everything from bones and corpses to ancient boats and jewelry. There were so many gold pieces from the Bronze Age and was so neat to know and have learned about the stuff we were looking at. The room with the pieces most recognized, included the Tara Brooch, the Ardagh Chalice, and a craved stone head that looked like Voldemort. The field trip was actually quite fun and we were able to spend the rest of our free time walking around and shopping in Dublin. There was the gay pride parade in Dublin so naturally everyone was on the street and dressed up crazy… it was an interesting sight. We bussed it back to Galway and took a nap before going out for our first weekend in Ireland. We decided to go out to the Hole in the Wall again; it was so much fun because they had a DJ and we got to request songs and dance around! Later that night we went back to our usual, The Kings Head, where they had a band called the Lunar Playground. The music sounded good, but the lead woman singer was not always on key. But let me tell you, the most fun part about the bars on the weekends is all of the bachelorette parties. Supposedly, bachelorette parties from around Europe come to Ireland and dress up in crazy matching costumes and pub hop… Sounds like fun to me? Are all my girls in?


Literature Field Trip – Sunday June 30, 2013

            Do you remember when field trips used to mean a day skipped of school to have fun ‘learning’ somewhere? Well at NUIG, field trips are on the weekend…so you don’t get to miss school. Rainy and cold weather take away some of the fun as well. However, if it wasn’t typical Ireland weather it would have been an interesting experience. We left campus on a bus and headed for South Galway’s Coole Park. Coole Park was the former home of Lady Gregory. Lady Gregory was an amazing woman whom we learned all about in the informational movie we watched when we arrived. She founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, where she produced and wrote plays. She was a proponent of the arts and literature in Ireland; numerous famous literary writers would frequently come to her home in Coole Park. The famous William Butler Years spent 20 summers in Coole Park. Lady Gregory had all of her intelligent friends carve their initials in a tree which is the only thing left standing today. We walked around the grounds of the park and saw where all of the buildings used to be. Lady Gregory truly was an inspiring woman, accomplishing all that she did while being a widowed woman in that time. It was a great story!
            We got on the bus again and headed to Kilmacduagh, Ireland’s highest round tower… but we called it Irelands Leaning Tower of Pisa because it leans 6 inches from the center. Saint Colman Mac Duach founded the area in the early 7th century; the area included the round tower, a monastery, the Church of St. John the Baptist and O’Heynes Church, a Cathedral, a Temple Mary, and a cemetery on the countryside of County Clare. The beautiful landscape and thousand year old buildings were incredible to see. We took plenty of pictures and then returned home. We spent most of the afternoon napping before we went out to dinner. We went to Bodkin Point Asian buffet restaurant that has a Sunday special of all you can eat for 12.50 euros, but it turns out that the food is way overpriced and really gross. Not to mention, the service doesn’t speak English. The pints of beer are 3 euros, which is the cheapest beer I’ve seen out, but their selection is slim. We went to bed early that night because our weekend of field trips really wore us out!

The Monday Curse – Monday July 1, 2013

            I don’t know why, but, almost every Monday that we are here in Ireland we have a crazy amount of class! We had Literature and Film lecture for 2 hours, an Art lecture for 1.5 hours, an Interdisciplinary Seminar on Irish Emigration for 1.5 hours, and a film showing of “The Dead”. Needless to say, we had a busy day at school! The night ended well with us going to see Despicable Me 2 in theatres before Americans were able see it! The movie was so funny and we had a great time! After the movie, we walked in the rain to The Kings Head and saw Fred and James play. These two middle-aged, drunk men took classic songs and made them hilariously dirty. In conclusion, Irish Mondays are rainy and busy just like American ones… bummer!


Silent Disco – Tuesday July 2, 2013

            The day was very cold and rainy (typical Ireland), we only had one class. We spent most of the day catching up on homework and laundry. However, the best part of the day was yet to come! SILENT DISCO!!! I had been waiting and counting down the days until the silent disco. I was so pumped! The disco happened in the back room of the Róisín Dobh Bar. It was 5 euros and with that you received headphones, a shot, and a pint of Bavaria. For those of you who do not know what a silent disco is, it is like a battle of the DJs through the headphones that everyone has on. There are 2 stations, typically one rock and one rap; you choose on your headphones which station you want to listen to. When you take your headphones off half the people dancing and singing to one beat, and the other half is doing something completely different…it was awkward big time, but so much fun! If one song was bad we simply switched to the other station and danced to that for a while. It’s a genius idea and I’m so glad I got to experience it with all the CEA people!
Tunes in the Church – Wednesday July 3, 2013

            In between classes we had a great lunch at Roscoe’s. It is a precious little café that gives you a mimosa when you ask for orange juice! I had a scrumptious Mexican wrap that hit the spot. We had some extra time before our last class and decided to go to the Galway Museum. It had interesting exhibits that featured Galway’s history, literature, film, and war paraphernalia. We completed our tourist day with visiting the Galway Cathedral. It had stained glass windows, Stations of the Cross, Holy water, pews, …basically a Catholic church… beautiful, but Catholic. We had more class and got home just in time for Tunes in the Church with our awesome CEA director, Brian Slatterly. Brian’s friend from school, Cormick Bagley, started this night for traditional Irish music every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There were four musicians for the two-hour concert. The first act was Cormick Bagley and his sister; he played an original pitch concertina while she Celtic danced and played the viola. They were so interesting to watch play together; Cormick said that they had a fight before the concert and the entire time they were making fun of each other. The second musician played the accordion, and the third musician sang Gaelic music a cappella. It was held in the Saint Nicholas Collegiate Church, which was an old Catholic church; during intermission we got a tour of the church and found all of the free masonry. The night as a whole was very informational. After the concert we went to The Front Door for some mojitos!

4th of July Ireland – Thursday July 4, 2013

We had two classes in the morning and then went to The Front Door for lunch. Kelsey and I got the smoked salmon and caper sandwich. In Ireland smoked salmon is raw, so Kelsey didn’t enjoy it, but I thought it was delicious; I wish it were on a bagel instead of a sandwich. They had a great burger selection and Alex enjoyed hers! We went back to class, but before our second interdisciplinary seminar I was able to Skype my family. My grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin, and family were all at my mountain house for the fourth. I was jealous that they all got to see each other, but I felt blessed to have the Internet to connect us. We had an interdisciplinary seminar on our future field trip to Dingle, Ireland and then had a summer school Fourth of July BBQ at the college bar (aka more drink vouchers). We didn’t have BBQ at the BBQ, but the food was delicious and we love the college bar! We went out for gelato afterwards and I got the delicious blend of caramel and fancy chocolate. Later that night, we visited The Kings Head to dance and listen to some good ‘ole American music on the best Independence Day!


Dingle Weekend – Friday July 5-7, 2013

            On Friday, half of the NUIG’s Irish Summer Studies Program loaded onto 2 buses to head to Dingle for the weekend. We drove roughly two hours and arrived at our lunch stop, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. Bunratty has been inhabited since the Vikings in 970; the first wooden castle was built in 1251. The current version was built in 1425 and the founder of Pennsylvania supposedly grew up in it. We toured the grounds, saw the amazing views from the top, and then went around Folk Park. Folk Park is a 17th century reconstructed village that now has lots of shops and places to eat. We went to Mac’s Bar for lunch and I had the delicious and filling Irish seafood chowder. Alex and a few others got the fried Cod which received rave reviews. We continued our bus ride for another four hours because of the traffic, but the ride through the winding cliffs and rolling hills was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It was like the Sound of Music; people would try and sing “the hills are alive with the sound of music ahh ahh ahh ahh”. We finally got to Dingle and checked in to the nicest hostel that I have ever seen, the Dingle Harbour Lodge Hostel. All 12 CEA girls shared a room with bunk beds and ONE bathroom. Other than the cramped spaces, the accommodations were completely fine. They had some difficulties with the Wi-Fi when 50 Americans with iPhones arrived, but it was okay because most of the pubs had Wi-Fi. We went to Harrington’s Fish Restaurant for dinner and I had the veggie burger, it was scrumptious. We went to SuperMaxx and got a few drinks to have by the Harbor and watch the boats and kayaks go by. We ended the night at Danno’s and ate in their tiki hut. We were the only people there and then all of a sudden, everyone was there. Luck of the draw!


            We had eggs and toast for breakfast at the hostel and hit the road on the bus again. We went to see the early Christian round huts (aka Beehive Huts). An archeologist from Dingle took us around all day and showed us the significance and meaning to all of the old architecture that we were visiting. The Beehive Huts were so small and cute and sat on this huge hill filled with sheep around it. After some exploring and harassing of the sheep we went to Coumeenoole Beach. The beach was beautiful and down a hill so there were cliffs all around. After taking way too many pictures, we were off to the Blasket Island Cultural Center for our lunch stop. We watched a documentary of the history of the island when we arrived. This agrarian island was inhabited by 200 people at its prime and gave rise to a whole literary subject. We went to lunch after our nap; I had the delicious appetizer of garlic bread for lunch. You’d think that we would be dead tired after all of our running around all day, but we still had two more sights before our return to Dingle! Next we went to the Gallarus Oratory. This tiny, ancient church was built in the 9th century. The church was built of large cut stones that were smoothed to the cone form it has today. The next church we went to was the Kilmalkedar. It was built in the 12th century and is a fine example of Romanesque architecture. Both of the churches were tiny and could barely hold our group. Kilmalkedar Church was home to the alphabet stone and another stone with a circle punched in the top. Supposedly, when a man and a woman touched their finger through the hole, they were considered married… so we did that of course! What happens in Ireland stays in Ireland right?! We drove back to Dingle and sat by the water for a while. We adventured further and found a whole new part of the city. We ate at the cutest vegetarian hippie place called Cúi Gairdín, where I had a yummy fresh herb and cheese crepe. We traveled to a few bars (Hannie Agnes’s and Marina Inn) for some traditional Irish music and a pint!


We had another delicious breakfast at the hostel, packed up our belonging and hit the road to go back to Galway. We had our lunch stop in Adare. This sweet little town consisted of thatch roofed houses, a beautiful manor, and an Irish golf course. We went to this restaurant called The Good Room to eat yummy tomato basil soup. After lunch, we went to explore the Holy trinity Abbey Church and then returned to the Adare tourist center.  Shortly after, we were in Galway. Home Sweet Home. The whole town was filled with excitement that night for the Dublin v. Galway Hurling finals. We unfortunately lost L but it was an interesting and fun game to watch!


Here comes the sun... And midterms! Monday July, 8 & Tuesday July 9, 2013

The best weather since the 1980's has happened during the month that we are here! Hallelujah! It has been 80 degrees and sunny ALL WEEK LONG and the Irish do not know what to do! They do not have the appropriate clothing and are burnt red. We unfortunately have not been able to enjoy what we know as normal weather, (other then wearing shorts in the library) due to midterm stress and studying. The assessments at NUIG are all at once, in one huge room, with hand written essay questions for a huge amount if time. So we had 2 exams during a 3 hour period and wrote 10 pages. The only good thing that came from these days were that we found delicious and cheap food at the college bar, especially the Cajun Chicken Panini. We celebrated by going to a new bar with great traditional Irish music called Tig Coili. 

 Thank the Lord for Burritos - Wednesday July 10, 2013

            Mexican food is one of God’s gifts to Earth; every time I am in another country I realize how much I appreciate it. Other nations obviously have not had the beauty of Taco Bell every night of the week like I have during finals (not like Taco Bell is Mexican, but it is the cheap college version). Today was the day; I had reached my breaking point. I HAD to find Mexican. I cannot live without it for an entire whole month, which was a good thing to learn about myself. We were lucky enough to find a great burrito place. It is very similar to a Chipotle where you can choose a burrito, burrito bowl, or tacos with vegetarian, chicken, pork, or steak. The only thing that was different was the queso… it was very spicy. I do not know what they put in the queso to make it that hot, but it definitely had a kick. We left Boojum very satisfied and ready for the second half of our classes.  We ended the night with watching some Aziz Ansari comedy routines. I found out, by listing to the funny stories, that I graduated with the cousin that he always talking about, Harris. So that was cool… and then we had Thatcher shot night in. Nuff said. 


BEACH! - Thursday July 11, 2013

            There is nothing better than skipping class and instead, going to the beach! …not that I have ever done it before today, but NOW I can officially say that I have and there is nothing better. After our first class we all pilled in a taxi and headed to Salt Hill Beach. The beach was packed full of burnt Irish people trying to soak up the one sunny week in history. It was so much fun; there were rocks to climb, a diving board to jump off of (after 6pm), frisbees to throw, and tanning to get done. We had so much fun playing hooky all together in the sunshine. Who would have thought that we could get in the water in Ireland!?! Not me!! We had this delicious lunch at Mocha Beans, a cute sandwich/wrap shop with very green walls. We had a home cooked meal and then went to The Front Door.


Cliffs of Moher - Friday July 12, 2013

“My name is Ray. Ray of sunshine, Ray Charles, anyway you can remember that my name is Ray will do.” This was the opening statement of our Galway Tour Guide for the Cliffs of Mohr, so obviously we were in for a day full of beautiful views and giggles. Ray was full of funny stories. When parts of the walls lining the street were broken down, he called it the Guinness Wall. He also had a whole montage on sheep. The mountain sheep, the black faced and white faced sheep, the hippee sheep, the killer sheep, and the suicidal sheep all live in Ireland. After tons of Ray’s stories, we arrived at Dunguaire Castle in Kinvara. We did not go into the castle but instead walked around the grounds. From there we went to a place called the burrens. The burrens means (rocky grounds; literally the ground is solid rock. The Poulnabrone Dolmen is the wedge tomb that we were able to see while on the grounds. It is estimated to have 20 people buried there and it dates back some 5800 years ago. We drove through Lisdoovarna, which is a adorable little town that is famous for their “Matchmaking Festival’ in September. We finally got to the Cliffs of Mohrr and the view was INCREDIBLE! One can hike left or right on the Cliffs; we decided to go left and walk on the path with no guard rails… living on the edge. The Cliffs of Mohrr are 8 km long and the Harry Potter: [The Half Blood Prince] was filmed there. We had panini’s for lunch at the café on the bottom level of the visitor’s center, and then the pictures and views continued for hours. We could not have chosen a better day to visit! When we arrived back in Galway, we had a delicious meal at The Spanish Arch restaurant. I had the fried calamari, Alex had the lamb, and Andrew had the Guinness stew… all were delicious; we practically licked our plates. We walked back to our accommodations by the river trying to find the perfect engagement spot. We ended our night watching comedy videos with all of our friends. Perfect day!



Connemara & Cong Tour - Saturday July 13, 2013

            We were off on another bus tour again with Ray! The tour was a little different; we had more stops and for less time since the main reason for going was the beautiful scenery. On the way to Connemara National Park, we saw the famous bridge where the movie ‘The Quiet Man’ was filmed…remember the crazy red head I ranted about? We headed into the town, Recess, before driving through the BEAUTIFUL Inagh Valley. There are scenic views on every turn; when you walk on the ground it is very squishy. The Inagh valley is a bog used to make turf, a substance that is burned to keep warm during the winter. The valley is an archeological gold mine with each layer of dirt dating back thousands of years, it is untouched history. The views kept coming when we entered into the Connemara National Park. Nothing can beat the scenery, but the Kylemore Abbey certainly tied, and it all started with a young couple having picnic in Connemara. Margaret and her new husband, Mitchell Henry, were in Connemara on their honeymoon when they saw a beautiful spot for a castle. Margaret asked very nicely for a castle and that is exactly what she got… Kylemore Abbey. Now TALK about love!! The castle, abbey, and gardens were absolutely wonderful. We had a delicious lunch on the ground’s gardens, and quickly after a tour of the castle were back on the bus ready to head to Cong. Cong was a cute little town that had an old cathedral and an adorable tea shop. Personally, I would have wanted to stay at Kylemore Abbey longer, but I am glad that we got to see the quaint town as well. For the rest of the way home Ray sang us some national Irish songs while we looked at the countryside out of our window. That night we decided to go to two new bars. We went to Garvey’s Select Bar and The Bentley. The Bentley soon became our new favorite spot with great drink specials, the never empty dance floor, and the rockin’ DJ.


Aran Islands – Sunday July 14, 2013

            Our last school field trip was a day trip to the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. We met at school and took a bus to Rossaveal port. We had an hour ferry ride to the island of Inis Mór. When we got there we went directly to the bikes. We biked for about 4 miles all around the perimeter of the island. It was an absolutely perfect day for a bike ride. It was not too hot with the sea breeze and the landscape was beautiful. The rocks, beach, and the blue clear water was wonderful and I could’ve stayed there forever, but we had a schedule to keep so I had to truck it up the hills. When we got to the top of the bike path, we got a delicious lunch at the café and shopped for some Aran Island wool items.
After our lunch break, we had a guided tour of the prehistoric fort, Dun Aenghus. The fort had three rings of walls dating from the 1100’s. The views from the top were astonishing and we had fun looking over the cliffs into the water way way way down below. The bike ride back to the port was so much easier going mostly down hill and we just took our time and enjoyed the views. 

Whew! Whatta Week! July 15-21, 2013

We all had crazy, nutty weeks… like usual. However, there was even more madness with the stress of 2 six page papers due. So every day, mostly, we would go to class, eat at the college bar, and work on our papers. Instead of writing about the boring things that we did all week, I will instead give you a highlight reel of the fun stuff that we did as well. Cause all work and no play? No WAY!
On Monday night, everyone went to the Kings Head and Quay’s Bar. I had never been to the Quey’s before, but I really liked the old atmosphere and the band was very good! Therefore, we decided to go to the Quey’s 2 more times that week. On our way home from the Quey’s, we decided to get some food at Supermaxx. Little did we know, we were in for more than just a treat!!! We met a kind, drunken sir who kept our entire group entertained and laughing the whole duration of our fourth meal. He was mostly just obsessed with our straight teeth and our American beauty; his favorite thing to do was to compare us to celebrities. Kelsey got likened to a Kardashian, Alex was Kendra, and I got the pleasure of being Jaime Lynn Spearce. His obsessive knowledge of the E! Channel and his dirty tattoos definitely kept us rolling on the floor laughing at him!
            On Tuesday, we went to the movie, The Butcher Boy for our literature class. This movie representation of the novel we read was absolutely dreadful and tragic. The main character, Francie, has terrible things happen to him his whole life and eventually goes crazy and kills someone. It is not a surprise that the movie put us in a bad mood. The only way to cheer us up was to go back to our favorite burrito place, Boojum.  We finished the night listening to the Super Freaks at The Kings Head and started the next day at the Quey’s for Megan’s 21st birthday!
            On Wednesday, we continued our birthday celebrations for Megan all together at Cooke’s. It was a really nice meal that offered reservations for a large group like us. The people who ordered the chicken pasta had the best meal, but everyone was full by the end of the night with the delicious cake. We walked around town after dinner with the cake in hand until we arrived home and had Thatcher Shot Night.
            Thursday was a busy day filled with lots of class and the finishing of our paper. During our lunch break, we went to La Salsa. The burritos and taco fries were to die for! Once our bellies were full from Mexican food, we went shopping for our friend’s engagement! We stocked up on candles, lanterns, and white lace in order to set up the most beautiful spot on the river for Jake to pop the question. Our excitement grew for the engagement happening in 24 hours! We had the pleasure of going to one of the Galway Arts Festival’s plays, Stella and Lou. The play was so adorable, set in an American pub, with only three characters and an adorable love story. The theatre was incredibly hot with no air conditioning, but the play was very well done; I am glad that we got to participate in Galway’s most famous festival! We ended our night at The Kings Head for a true Irish punk band called Larkin. It was such an experience for every one of the Irish people to be singing and dancing to a song that none of us have ever heard in our lives.
            Friday was the ENGAGEMENT! It did not matter that we had class or things to do because our dear friends, Jake and Abby would be engaged that night!!! All day was like Christmas as we waited for the perfect time at dusk to set up the spot and watch them get engaged. We set up, kicked some people out of the area, and shooed away tourists who were taking pictures; it was ALL worth it for Jake and Abby when she said yes and we were all there cheering for them! The ring is gorgeous, the night was gorgeous, and the pictures turned out gorgeous. We had them light lanterns (like in Tangled) and send it up into the sky… which was cheesy, yes… but also beautiful. It was so fun and we got free champagne from the club Carbon to celebrate! It was a wonderful night filled with love and friendship and I could not have asked for a better group to share our last Friday in Galway with!
            As we could feel the end of our time in Galway approaching quickly, we decided to stay in our beautiful city and do some souvenir shopping at the market on Saturday. Galway has a beautiful market every Saturday with fresh fruits, vegetables and goods along with jewelry, artwork, pottery and homemade clothing for sale. The market was extra exciting because of the tourism for the arts festival. The city was hip-hop happening. It was a great last weekend in Galway!
Our Sunday was filled with studying and writing mostly, but we also found time for a Harry Potter movie and mass at the Galway Cathedral. It was a good and very short service; the beauty of the church and the uncomfortable pews honestly distracted me from the message. We were back at our accommodations in time to welcome back the other half of the CEA people who went to Barcelona for the weekend and to finish out the weekend with one last Thatcher Shot Night.


The Final Countdown – Monday/Tuesday July 22nd and 23rd, 2013

The weirdest feeling in the entire world is not knowing where you are. That is the eerie feeling that I had when there were three strange men sleeping on our apartment couches and I walked to the kitchen with my pajamas on. Three drunken Irish men decided to squat in our living room after crawling through the window. They didn’t take anything or break anything, but they were very difficult to wake up and get out of our apartment before class. Honestly the strangest morning I could’ve imagined ever would happen on the last day of class. After ten minutes of us hollering to leave, they left and we got ready for school. Our last day of classes went well, but the whole day we were just looking forward to the CEA dinner. Brian took all of us to Milano's for one last nice pizza dinner all together. The dinner was enjoyable and sad at the same time; we didn’t want to leave all of our friends, but we are so blessed to have made such good friends in such short amount of time. We ended the night studying for finals and watching Tangled in honor of Jake and Abby’s engagement.
Tuesday was such a depressing day, not only because we had a three hour final, but because it was our last day all together. We got up in the morning and studied a little before our finals. The finals this time were not nearly as hard as our midterms, maybe because I knew what to expect or maybe because I already knew I passed the class. After the final, we all walked over to the college bar to have the Irish Studies Program’s Farewell Reception. We ate sandwiches and chips and had free drink vouchers. It was lovely to see everyone one last time; even Brian came to say goodbye. It was lovely weather so we sat outside just enjoying each other’s company and remembering how far we have come in only a month. We had an interesting conversation about how different areas of the United States pronounce words. I have decided that Brian is a southern man at heart and should come visit us someday. After the food and drinks were gone, we decided to go home and go out for our final time! The whole crew got dressed up, took pictures, and watched the engagement video for Abby and Jake right before we went out to our favorites… The Kings Head and The Front Door. The last song at The Kings Head was Galway Girl. There is nothing like singing our favorite Irish song in our favorite Irish pub for the last time. The Front Door even had great music to dance to… meaning Kanye… which is all that Kelsey wanted to listen to the whole month. It was a wonderful last night together that turned very quickly into the morning and the goodbyes.


Dublin Round Three – July 24, 2013

Our lack of sleep caused us to rush out of the door to the taxi in order to make the bus on time. We all made it; Alex, Kelsey, Jake, Abby, and I were all on the way to Dublin for the last time. When we got to Dublin, we checked into the Blooms Hotel and went to search for some lunch to eat. We ate lunch at Brewley’s and it was delicious. The only problem was the incredibly slow service, especially for five college kids ready to see the city!!  The three bean chili that I got was worth the wait, but I still would've rather spent time sightseeing. 
We decided to see the city using the Hop on - Hop off tour. The bus took us to all of the places that we wanted to see, and would give us stories of what we were passing along the way. Our first stop was the Guinness Factory. I had been told that I had to see the factory when I was in Dublin, but since I did not like the taste of Guinness, I was not too excited. To my surprise, however, the Guinness Factory was incredibly cool. With seven levels of the museum, it tells you about the ingredients, how it is made, why it tastes different from other beers, how it is marketed, the history, and how its grown. There are things to touch, see, and play with, and I never once got bored. After learning all about Guinness and then truly having an appreciation of it, one gets a free pint of Guinness at the top of the factory in The Gravity Bar. The Gravity Bar is the tallest bar in Dublin and is circular with only windows looking at the 360 degree view of the city. The Gravity Bar was beautiful and very enjoyable, even though I didn’t get a Guinness and got a coke instead. 
Our next stop was St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This beautiful cathedral is from 1192 and is chalked full of Irish history. The stained glass was absolutely stunning and the central alter was unlike anything that I have ever seen before. We headed to the National Library after the Cathedral and got a little lost along the way. We ended up at the JFK exhibit that a building next to the library was putting on. The entire time during our trip to Ireland, we had been seeing the ‘Kennedy’ name everywhere, and we finally got to find out why the Irish love JFK so much. When we eventually found the National Library… there really wasn’t too much to see there, only the Yeats exhibit. This exhibit would be completely lame if we hadn’t have studied Yeats’ poetry for the last month. Therefore, it was so interesting to see some of the poems that we studied in Literature class hand written by the author himself. They only let people go into one room of the National Library and you are only aloud to take pictures from the back… therefore, due to the lameness, we decided to move on quickly to Merrion’s Square. Rick Steves said that this public park is beautiful and the architecture of the houses around it was a sight, but we did not exactly see it that way. It was just a regular park and the houses surrounding it looked rather normal to me. Since there was nothing special about the park, so we decided to hop on the last bus home and then completing our Hop On Hop Off Tour of Dublin. We had a wonderful dinner at the Trinity Bar, dessert at Shake’s Milkshake Bar, and a free drink at the bar connected to our hotel, the Vat House Bar. We ended our last night in Dublin with just the three of us, having one last drink, and listening to a guitarist play us the Galway Girl song that we requested. Perfection. What an amazing trip!



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