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!

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.

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 21^st 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.

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. 

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.

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!

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.