Brno Way! and other Gallivantings

I'm STILL the worst blogger in the history of studying abroad. Excepting those who don't even attempt to keep a blog, I mean. If by chance you happen to see this, cheers to you for trying to stick by me, and my sincerest apologies for my lack of adventuring stories. It's largely been the amount of adventuring that has kept me from writing down my stories - I've traveled every weekend since the 17th of September, and when I'm actually in Limerick I'm furiously catching up on schoolwork or sleep. With stories this exciting (for me, at least) I also don't want to miss any bits or short-change you as my audience, and that takes quite a while...each of my weekends could have their own BOOK if I could manage it!

Solution (mostly my mom's, but I'll take some credit): I have half-finished entries about almost every weekend, so I'll start posting as I work on them, meaning they'll keep evolving over time. Obviously a bit out of date, but still good? For the moment, a quick run down of all the amazing places I've been blessed with the opportunity to see!

Galway, Ireland
Cork, Ireland
Waterford, Ireland
Killary Harbour, Ireland
Edinburgh, Scotland
Oslo, Norway
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Berlin, Germany
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Cobh, Ireland
Adare, Ireland

Lots to write about! For now, this past weekend I was able to spend Thanksgiving with my parents!  They celebrated their 25th anniversary this summer, so they came over and toured the southern half of Ireland for a few days before ending in Shannon, a city about 30 minutes away from Limerick. We had Thanksgiving dinner in a castle (!!!), and spent the weekend wandering around Limerick, Galway, Cobh and Cork. Cobh (pronounced "cove," the "bh" makes a v sound in Irish) is a small village in the southwest of Ireland known for its huge natural harbor, which made it Ireland's biggest port in the early 1900s. The town is famous today because it was the last port of call for the Titanic before the ship headed towards America, and because when the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed 26 miles off the coast, the survivors, wounded, and dead were recovered by the fishermen of Cobh and brought to the town for care. Adare is a tiny little town about 25 minutes from Limerick, and it's exactly what you'd think of when you picture a quaint little Irish village - thatched roofs, church ruins, village park with a burbling little stream, everything! We didn't get to spend too much time there because it was a Sunday evening and everything was closing, but I'm absolutely going back. :)

THIS weekend, I made a last minute, executive decision to make one final travel splurge and head to Prague!! Not exactly Brno, like the title says, but still the Czech Republic, right? I'll have to come up with something a little more clever for the actual accounting. Prague, though, has been on my list of places to see the entire semester, but with my other trips it didn't look like I'd make it. Egged on by several friends and family members (my mother's response to asking if I should clean out my bank account to afford the trip was "Sounds like fun...Merry Christmas!"), I'll be hopping a flight Thursday and joining up with the WSA Prague tour! More about WSA when I get around to Amsterdam, though. Prague should be amazing, especially decorated for Christmas. I'm crossing my fingers for snow! I've heard the Christmas markets in Prague are absolutely incredible, and if they're anything like Belfast or even Galway, it will be completely true. Now that I finally have my camera back (!!!!!!!) there will be plenty of pictures!

Beklager, jeg snakker ikke norsk...

I'm keeping up pretty well so far with my mid-term resolution to update the blog more - look at me go! I'm still working on hashing out stories from my previous travels, but might as well not keep youall waiting longer than you have to for new stories!

hopefully real Norwegian trolls will be cooler
 than this guy - Dad doesn't look scared
 at ALL! <3 Disney World (circa 2000)

In case you didn't understand the title of this post (if you actually did, you get a prize. What, I'm not sure, but I'll figure out something), the translation according to BBC Languages is "I'm sorry, I don't speak Norwegian." You guessed it, I'm headed off to NORWAY!  As the birthplace of Road Dahl, Liv Ullman, Knute Rockne, and the inventor of the Swiss cheese slicer, I have high expectations for this country - I'm headed to the land of my forefathers for culture, cold, and MORE FJORDS!!! 

The previously mentioned prestigious citizens and geographic features aside, this weekend should be rather memorable for three reasons: 

1. My travel companions are the dynamic duo themselves, Jack "the Shanimal" Shannon and Brian "Murphy Shuffle" Murphy (and two of their friends from NUIG, but I don't know them yet).

2. My part in this adventure began less than two weeks ago in the middle of nowhere next to Ireland's only fjord via smartphone at approximately 2:30am.

3. With roughly 12 hours until I leave Limerick, we still have no accommodations, no itinerary, and no plan - and I LOVE it! (I do have the emergency number for the US embassy in Oslo, so we're good to go)

Wish me luck, and Alt for Norge!

***EDIT MONDAY 24 OCT: Due to a history essay due Thursday afternoon, my post about Norway will have to happen after that, since I procrastinate like crazy.***

to Arthur!

the man himself, Arthur Guinness

What’s the most important holiday of the year in Ireland? Arthur’s Day! Okay not really, but it sure felt like it! Arthur’s Day commemorates the birthday of Arthur Guinness, the original brewer of (you guessed it) Guinness beer. Every September 22^nd, pubs, bars, and clubs all over Ireland throw huge parties and concerts to celebrate the day, with more advertising than I’ve ever seen for a holiday!

I first heard about Arthur’s Day the day I arrived in Dublin. After seeing bits of the city, our jet-lagged group collapsed in the lounge of our hotel where Arlene (one of the IFSA staff) was waiting for stragglers to arrive. She told us a number of places to go in Galway and Limerick, things to see, cities around Ireland we should visit, why Irish people complain about the weather in every conversation, etc. She was ASTOUNDED that none of us had ever heard of Arthur’s Day, and went on and on about how it’s the best holiday ever and Limerick was throwing a HUGE concert with amazing acts and it was going to be absolutely  great!

 When Arthur’s Day rolled around, the whole Limerick group purchased tickets for the event/concert taking place at Dolan’s Pub, one of the places Arlene had recommended.  As I’m sure you can imagine, the festivities stared early in the day, even for a Thursday. I have class until 3:00pm on Thursdays, and walking between every class I saw students carrying plastic cups of Guinness out from the campus bar! Guess Ireland doesn’t have much of an open container law?

 Arthur’s Day’s most important tradition is a toast at 17:59 (or 5:59pm, if you’re not used to military time) in honor of the first batch of Guinness being brewed in the year 1759, so we made sure we were downtown by about 5:30pm. We walked in the door of Dolan’s and were greeted by Arthur Guinness himself! He looked pretty good for being 252 years old, and once the bartenders told us we’d get a free pint of Guinness for “making yourselves known to Arthur,” we immediately took the photo op!  Who can turn down free Guinness, especially on Arthur’s Day?  

The rest of the night was a huge mix of toasts to Arthur – who was pretty well drunk by the time we left for the evening – and moving between the concert in the Dolan’s Warehouse and the traditional Irish music, or “trad” music, performance in the regular pub.  To get to the concert initially, we were told to walk around the block to an alternate entrance where they were taking tickets. I had just gotten my full pint of Guinness, and since the doormen usually guard the real glass pint glasses like the Crown Jewels, I was nervous about this whole idea. We walked up to the front door and the man said “the door’s just around the corner on your left, be sure to take your drink with you!” Strange, but Marion and I were ecstatic about getting real glasses out the door of a pub! BIG deal.  The concert wasn’t actually all that amazing and the girl singing was dressed like Harry Potter a bit, which was definitely weird, but everyone celebrating was really friendly and welcoming! I even capped off the evening at Dolan’s with a Jameson and Coke – a little pricey, but when better than Arthur’s Day in Ireland??

ATTENTION, ATTENTION!

UL library (not my picture, I'm not THAT good)

Dear family and others,

I am indeed alive, and currently back in Limerick, Ireland! I apologize for the SEVERE lack of blog entries - I've had the opportunity to go on several wonderful trips and it's just overwhelming to think about sitting down and attempting to summarize them in a few paragraphs when I want to write BOOKS - which obviously I don't have time to do, which compounds the problem - and so on and so forth.

However, having recently (within the last few hours) returned from a weekend trip, I think if I keep along the track of NOT writing things down, I never will because they'll get so gosh-darn overwhelming.

MEANING THAT: starting tomorrow when I hole myself up in the UL library for hours and hours upon end, my study breaks will be filled with telling stories of my recent adventures to Galway, Cork, Waterford, Killary, and Edinburgh, as well as hopefully some interesting anecdotes about life in general in Ireland.

You'd think I'd have gotten around to this stuff sooner, but obviously not. SOON I promise! :)

[The Cliffs of] Moher Adventures in Ireland!

Stone Fort

Above all else, I’ve discovered that Ireland is windy.  My new friend Sarah called Friday evening and asked if I wanted to join her and some friends on a bus tour the next day to the Cliffs of Moher and a few other places.   I’ve been told several times I need to see the Cliffs, so why not?  After a few registration mishaps, I met Sarah and her roommate Steph Saturday morning to catch our bus at the UL flagpoles.  Because the bus tour was through an independent company and not the school, I assumed the other passengers would be a mixture of people of all ages and from a bunch of places – as it turned out, they were all students at UL! Another study abroad company, AIFS, had booked most of the tour seats so my entire bus was other undergrad students from around the States.  The bus ride started out a little weird because all of the AIFS students knew each other and the only seats available were spread throughout, meaning I couldn’t sit near the only people I DID know. One of the reasons I decided to go was to meet more people at UL and what better way than having to meet people? I never did learn my seatmate’s name but she lives in Virginia, studies in South Carolina, and has no real interest in rocks. Luckily I LOVE rocks, because that was kind of the focus of the tour!

Our first stop was a stone fort. Located somewhere in County Clare (I have no idea where precisely we were), the fort was in a farmer’s backyard. Everywhere you look in Ireland there are stone ruins from various times, so the farmer thought nothing of it until he was digging around and came across more evidence of human occupation. It turns out that the fort we saw is the oldest and most complete in County Clare and they think all of Ireland! I was fascinated by the limestone used to build the fort and how it has stood up over time (for the non-geo people, limestone wears away fairly quickly relative to most other rocks) but it didn’t prove to interest most of the rest of the group for long – maybe because some of the “stops” on the guided tour were like number 8: “The Elderberry Bush.” Not really the most interesting way to present information, but still cool. The café proved the be the best part of this particular stop; we all opted for coffee to warm up from the wind, and the snacks looked incredible! It was most likely the BEST mocha I’ve ever had in my entire life, and Sarah and I split a small cheesecake made with Bailey’s – YUM. The cheesecake was more fluffy and kind of like Cool Whip than I’m used to and the crust was a little crunchier, which made for some incredible cheesecake!

Sarah and I at the tomb

Our driver stopped again about ten minutes up the road and informed us that we were about to see some crazy rocks – PERFECT! We had stopped at the ruins of a tomb, but not a tomb like you might imagine.  Shaped like a miniature Stonehenge almost, the tomb would have held only cremated remains, and only those of very important people in the society. Lesser people were also cremated, but not given the big memorial site.  Our guide said the horizontal stone is estimated to weigh over two tons, causing many archaeologists to speculate about how in the world it was placed on top. My guess? It was built like the pyramids – aliens helped them. The rocks surrounding the tomb were really amazing also. The landscape is described as “limestone pavement” because there’s not really much else! Huge limestone sheets are separated by tunnels and such cut into the rock by the movement of wind and water with almost no soil or vegetation anywhere. There’s a little bit of ground cover that can grow in the cracks as soil and debris gets stuck, but for the most part you just see grey rock. It’s especially astounding seen from far away – on the drive to our next stop there was a giant hill on the opposite side of the valley that looked like it was covered in snow, but the guide said it was all limestone!

From the limestone pavement we headed down towards Galway Bay and into a little town along the very edge where we stopped for lunch at Monk’s Pub. Galway Bay is known for its fishing and other sea life, and how could I say no to fresh seafood?  For the foodies in the audience, I had delicious fresh fish and chips served with a salad of a bunch of different fresh vegetables paired with a “Bailey’s cream coffee” (pictures included, don’t worry!). Sarah’s roommate Steph and Steph’s friend Lauren turned out to be from Perth, Australia, leading to interesting discussions when Halie mentioned s’mores. S’mores turned to Peeps (yep, the garishly-colored marshmallow things) which led to the Easter bunny vs. Easter bilbys and then to numbats. The last two are Australian animals, and if you haven’t heard of them, Google them. It’s worth it, cross my heart!

New friends! From left: Steph, Lauren, and Halie

With full (almost to bursting!) stomachs, our guide trundled us back onto the bus to start the trek up to the Cliffs of Moher. He thoughtfully took the scenic route which gave us the most incredible views of the coastline, the surf, ruined castles, cows, sheep, waterfalls, and more. We were allowed two separate stops to “stretch your legs and you’re very welcome to take a few photos if you like,” which I did like, thank you very much. The views were stunning; beaches running from the hills all the way to the ocean, giant round boulders left by glaciers that our guide referred to “giants’ footballs,” more SHEETS of limestone pavement, and at the second, a cliff face dropping straight into the ocean at least 200 feet below us. The wind at the cliff stop was so strong that I was getting blown from side to side while walking, and we had to crawl on hands and knees out to the edge to avoid being blown straight off the cliff! Note to self: next time I go sightseeing here, I’m packing a headband and bobby pins. The pictures are pretty funny because my hair is OUT OF CONTROL!

Oh you know, just falling off a cliff

the Cliffs of Moher

Danielle and Halie being blown down the hill

From our first glimpse of cliffs, we headed straight up to the Cliffs of Moher; the reason I came on the trip, and WORTH IT. There really aren’t words for these cliffs. Ranging in height from 120 meters (almost 400 feet) to almost 220 meters (just a little above 700 feet), they are one of the most spectacular things I’ve EVER seen – no wonder they’re in the running for one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World! The geology major part of me loved that every single layer of rock was visible from ocean level up to the very top. When I say ocean, the cliffs look straight out over the Atlantic Ocean, with the Aran Islands just visible on the right side (that’s the islands where Irish sweaters are from).  Again, the wind was absolutely unbelievable. Halie and I had a difficult time walking up to the observation paths, but it was nothing compared to the wind at the top! On the far side of the observation tower built by the O’Briens the wind was so intense that I was leaning forward at at LEAST a 60° angle (from the ground, not from vertical) just to stay standing up! One of the girls said she snapped a few pictures of us trying to stand in the wind that I’ll post once I find who took them. Looking out across the ocean, you could see a huge rainshower headed in toward us (which was really cool watching it stir up the water as it moved!), so we hightailed it back along the path – helped by the wind, of course – to the underground/in hillside visitors’ center to warm up with tea and hot chocolate and wait out the rain before heading home. For an impromptu trip, Saturday turned out to be one of the best adventures I’ve had in Ireland!

PS_If the title of this post doesn’t make sense, it’s because “Moher” is pronounced like “mower” like what you cut the grass with. If you say it quickly, it’s kind of like “more” – at least in my head. J