Quite the week...

Hello!  It's been a strange week that's for sure--not all that great at first, but then things started to go uphill :)


Katie and my friend Liz from Duquesne, as well as her friend, Sam, came for a little visit while they were on their fall break (they're studying at Duquesne's Rome campus).  They were due in around 2 on Wednesday, so Katie and I went to meet them at the bus station.  While there, someone stole my wallet.  I don't even know how it happened, or how I didn't hear it happen!  It was in my backpack, zipped, and on me. What makes it suck even worse is that I had just taken out a lump sum of money out of the ATM about 15 minutes beforehand for this weekend.  All of my ID's were stolen, along with my immigration card (costs 150 euro...), so the thief definitely got away with a lot, as well as making my life miserable for the past few days!


So I went to the Garda and filed a statement.  They said it's unlikely that it would turn up, but if it did, they would let me know. So I went back for lunch with Liz, Sam, and Katie.

We went into down and did a little shopping while I showed them around.  Afterwards we went out to a few pubs and caught up :)

Early Friday morning we left for Cork, which was about a 4.5 hour bus ride.  We arrived in Cork around 12:30, and caught a bus to the airport, where I thought our hotel was.  We ended up passing the hotel, and getting the bus driver to drop us off at the side of the road.  We made it to the hotel, dropped our stuff off, and went to Eddie Rockets (connected to the hotel) for lunch.  I got a Hawaiian burger to the tune of 7.50Euro...which didn't even include fries.  But nonetheless, it was still good.  We grabbed a cab and headed towards the center of town, and got dropped off at the English Market.  The English Market is a large farmers market of meats and produce.  If I lived in Cork, I would definitely do my grocery shopping there!

It was downpouring all day Friday, and the jazz festival was also going on.  We avoided both by doing some serious shopping, since the shopping is so much better than Galway, and even better than Dublin.  I ended up buying a pair of new boots that go about 3 inches below the knee.  They are really funky, and super cute...and decently priced.  I also bought a dress that was on clearence :)

It was a nice to step back from all the touristy things we've been doing and just shop.  The city of Cork doesn't really have many touristy things--but they make up for it in their shopping!  We went back to the hotel and chilled for a while and got dessert at Edie Rockets.

On Sunday we headed back to Edie Rockets for FRENCH TOAST!!! Sooo exciting!  We then caught a cab down to the bus station where we got a bus to Blarney town.  We quickly headed towards the castle, which was bigger than I expected.  It wasn't so much a castle, but a glorified watchtower. 

After meandering through the castle, we got to the top where the Blarney Stone is located.  You have to lay down, bend over through a hole with nothing below, grab on to the rails as someone lowers you down, and then you give it a quick peck and come back up.  They say the locals pee on it at night, but I'm not sure how much I believe that, since it's located on top of a castle in a park where you have to pay an admission fee to get into.  Anyways, I got the gift of gab, or rather eloquence :)

After meandering through the castle, we wandered through the rock glade where there were many druid and fairy areas. 

We did a little shopping at the tourist shops, and got some lunch before heading back to Cork to catch the bus home to Galway.  It was a good little getaway, and it was GREAT to see Liz.  I missed her dearly <3 It was also nice meeting Sam, and Katie and I are both looking forward to visiting them in Rome in mid-November.



On the plus side with the wallet situation, I forgot that I had bought travel insurance with my airline ticket to Ireland.  It turns out that it covers lost/stolen travel documents (being my immigration card).  So if nothing else, they'll cover the replacement fees of that.  I have to fill out a bunch of paperwork and get documents faxed, but I'm hoping they cover some of the stolen stuff!

We're going to the market in a few hours...I've been looking for a Claddaugh ring.  We are also going out tonight for a bit and doing some dancing (should be interesting)..  Besides that I plan on doing homework.  We also have a "Bank Holiday" tomorrow, so we have off school.  Katie and I will be busy planning our trip to Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam for this weekend :)

Byeeee <3

Dingle, Ring of Kerry, and Killarney

Hello there! This past weekend Katie, Michelle, James and I headed off for a weekend adventure to the Dingle Penninsula, Ring of Kerry, and Killarney.  The tour cost 100 euro, which was definitely well worth it--I don't think the tour company even made a profit off of this trip, but oh well.  So we departed Galway at 2pm Friday afternoon with stops at the Beattey Castle and Adare.  We arrived in Dingle Town around 7:45 and got some grub.  Dingle Town is the western most part of Ireland, and they say the next parish over is Boston.  It's a little fishing town, and it indeed smells like fish as you meander the streets.  After eating, we stopped in a little store and bought some souveniers.  While there, we saw our bus pass us, and thought it was leaving without us.  So Katie sprinted to catch up with it.  We headed to the hostel to drop some bags off and then headed back into town.  We went to a couple of pubs, but there wasn't anything really going on Friday night.

We departed the hostel at 10 am Saturday and started our tour along the Shea Head Drive.  It was absolutely stunning.  We saw an old ring fort that had an underground path that lead to the cliffs of the penninsula.  We also saw old beehive huts, which were individual stone caves where monks lived up on the hills of the penninsula.  Next, we climbed a little hill on the edge of the mountain, where we had fabulous views of beaches, rocks, mountains, the edge of the penninsula, as well as many islands nearby.  The islands included Skelling Michael, which is 600 feet of rocks and the Blaskets, which are three seperate islands.  People actually lived on the Blaskets until the 1950s when the government forced them to the main land due to safety issues.

Next we went to an old monastic site, that used to be site to an old church community full of those beehive huts.  This was just recently excavated, as it was covered over farm land until about 20 years ago.  There was also an old Celtic stone here, which was pretty neat.

The next stop was Gallarus Oratory, which is the best preserved beehive hut in Ireland.  It's about 1300 years old, and is approximately 8mx5m, and is formed by the gradual rise of side walls from the base upwards.  It's built so intricately, that even today, it is waterproof.  There is no mortar holding the stones together.  Quite an astonishing site.  The Oratory was another place that the Christian monks lived.

Next was the Kilmalkedar Church, which is in ruins.  There were lots of gravestones here, as well as ohm stones, which were used for writing wayyy back when.  An old sundial was also here, which is still useable today.

We continued the Slea Head Drive until we were back in Dingle Town.  We grabbed some lunch and did a little shopping.  Then we headed towards a little village where we were going to a "leisurely hill climb".  Let me just say, Christy was NOT prepared for this.  She should have definitely had an inhaler and 911 on call.  There was no path, and this was like a legit vertical incline. Instead of a path, there were thorn bushes, lamb poop, and mud.  Your best bet was to walk on the thorn bushes, in hopes that you didn't sink into a ditch.  Fun fun times.  However, I did not die (barely--a lot of people were concerned), and made it to the top, where there were stunning views of mountains, the Atlantic, and Inch Beach.  Everyone else continued hiking to the next peak, but there was no way I could have made it. So Katie and Michelle, being the kind souls they are, stayed behind with me. So we took some lovely goofball pictures :)

After the "leisurley hill climb" we headed towards inch beach and walked around.  It was beautiful, especially since the sun was setting.  People were in the water, insane! There were also a bunch of people headed out to surf, also insane...as the water is frigid!

We went back to the hostel and chilled for a little bit before heading back out.  We ate dinner and had a few pints at the Dingle Pub and then headed towards An Dreugeus beag (something in Irish that I can't say or spell).  We met up with our tour guide, Declan (aka Fergal).  He bought us a few rounds and then we left one section of the pub, and went to another, which was a nightclub.  We did some dancing and hung out until like 2 am.

The next morning (Sunday) we departed for the Ring of Kerry. Also quite beautiful with mountains, flora, the Atlantic, and beaches.

We stopped at the Lady's View, which is where Queen Victoria used to always come.  However it was raining and cloudy, so the view wasn't as spectacular as it could have been.  We continued onwards to Killarney National Park where we hiked a trail along the Torc Waterfall.  It was pretty, but definitely no Ricketts' Glen.

Next we stopped at the Muckross House, which used to be home to an American Senator.  It was along the lake, and it was so pretty. 

We then went into Killarney Town for some food and shopping.  While there, I found the best store ever:

It was a great weekend, and I'm so glad I went.  This area is definitely my favorite area of Ireland thus far. 

I also picked out my classes for next semester, and I think I'm going to die:
Forecasting     MWF     11-11:50
Business Professional Communications     MWF     12-12:50
Cosmology     MWF     1-1:50
Intermediate Macroeconomics     T/TH     9:25-10:40
Current Economic Issues     T/TH     1:40-2:55
International Business     T/TH     3:05-4:20

I have been also looking at internships, and I found one that I'm applying for at the Allegheny Conference, which is a nonprofit organization devoted to community development in the Pittsburgh region.  It involves econ, stats, marketing, and marketing research...all of my favorite things!  So I'm hoping that I get a call back!  I'm just a little concerned because I can't actually interview (if I was even to get a call back) since I'm in Ireland.

Liz and her friend and are coming tomorrow and staying until Sunday.  We are going to Cork and the Blarney Stone/Castle Friday-Saturday.  I'm excited to see her!!!!

LoveLove,
Christy

Brenda's Visit & GERMANY!!!

Hey Everyone! Hope all is well back home! Keep me updated--miss you all!


For the past 10 days, Brenda was here visiting, and I definitely kept her busy.  Last weekend we went to Dublin, Monday I showed her around Galway, Tuesday she went to the Cliffs, and Wednesday she went to Connemara.  She particularly enjoyed the Cliffs, which is great, seeing as it's quite a beauty!


Tuesday night we headed into Galway.  Brenda and I ate dinner at McDanaugh's fish in chips (pretty famous round these parts).  She had fish and chips while I had sausage and chips, since I don't like seafood.  While eating, we met a creeper named Paul who was from Belfast.  He had the hots for Bren and pulled up a seat making some friendly conversation until he saw her ring and found out she was married--he quickly scadattled.  Afterwards, Brenda and I met up with Katie and Jess at the Quays Pub for some traditional music and some drinks.  Brenda loved Guiness and Bulmers--she said it tasted like a wine spritzer.

On Wednesday Brenda went to Connemara.  We then ate lasagna AND apple salad at Jessica's--SO GOOD. We also packed and hit the sack early since we were departing for the bus station at 6:30.  We took a bus to the Dublin airport and then our flight left for Frankfurt-Hahn at 11:15ish.  We got into the airport and picked up our rental car and headed towards Heidelberg.  We found our hostel (pretty sketchy), parked, and headed towards Altstadt (the old city).  Altstadt was full of pedestrian streets with lots of shops.  It's a university town, so there were a lot of students as well.  We passed a few churches along the way until we reached the Heidelberg Schloss (castle in German).  By the time we got up the 308 steps, the castle was "closed" so you couldn't go inside.  However, you could still roam around the castle and through the numerous courtyards.  It was soooo pretty, and it overlooked the town :)  It was by far my most favorite castle I have been to.

After the castle, we headed back into town and grabbed some Subway and a Schneeball.  Schneeballen are translated as "snow balls", and they consist of fried pie crust dipped in various sweets--ours was dipped in dark choclate.  It was pretty good, but not something I'd get everyday.  We went back to the hostel for an early night's rest and departed for Rothenburg ob der Tauber early next morning.  Along the way we stopped at the Schwetzigen Schloss, which is famous for its gardens.  Unfortunately, it was super expensive, and the castle itself was under a lot of rennovation, so we didn't go in.  The Heidelberg Schloss was muchhh prettier anyways :)


We arrived in Rothenburg (which is a super old, preserved walled medieval village) around 11 and wandered through town attempting to find our Gasthaus (guesthouse...room for rent).  As we were looking, we passed St. Jakob's Church.  I decided to go in, and upstairs is a fantastic wood carving from the 1400's--apparently it's Germany's best! 

We ended up in the Marktplatz, which is the town square.  The old Rathaus, Christmas stores, the tourist information, and many other little shops are located here.  We asked the info desk where the guest house was, and she directed us towards the right direction.  We checked in and dropped some stuff off, and then headed to find lunch.  We stopped at a little Imbiss, and I held a conversation in German.  Let me just tell you, one of the most exciting parts of Germany was putting the little bit of German I know to good use!  I could actually understand some of what people were saying too!  Brenda didn't care for everything being in German, but I enjoyed it.  Anyways, I ordered our food in German, and for dessert I got Apfelstrudel (soooo delicious!).  We then did some shopping and went into a few Christmas stores.  I got most of my souveniers in Rothenburg, thank goodness, as Munich was super expensive.


Throughout the day we saw the medieval wall, spires, a couple of neat little churches, moats!, castle gates, and a few cute little parks with great overlooks!

We got dinner at a litte cafe and headed back to our room for some sleep.  We couldn't get the door unlocked, so Brenda flagged down another guest, and on the first try, it opened--we looked like idiots, but at least we got in!  We departed early and headed towards the Romantic Road, which is Germany's most scenic route, passing through more than a dozen cute little towns.  My favorite stop was Dinkelsbuhl!  It reminded me a lot of Rothenburg, just a little bit more modern.  We walked around, passing through the Obst und Gemusemarkt and then to a bakery, where I got the most delisious pastry I have ever had--it was basically an apple danish, just 10x better.

After stopping in Dinkelsbuhl, we took the Romantic Road to Augsburg, and hopped on the Autobahn to Munich.  We got into our hostel around 11 am, parked, and headed towards town. We stumbled upon a beautiful fountain and a gate, which was the entrance to Altstadt (all the cool sections of cities are called this, because they are the older sections of town).  Our first stop was St. Michael's Church.  I didn't know what to expect since the enitre outside was under rennovation.  But nonetheless, we went in, and it was beautiful!

Next, we went to the Frauenkirche, which was a Catholic Cathedral.  You may be thinking, "ugh, another church", but this was no ordinary church--Pope Benedict served as Archbishop here before he was Pope, so pretty significant.  Here, the church spires were the highest towers in the city.  We went up one of the spires and had a 360 degree view of the city. Breathtaking (but Brenda would argue otherwise).

Next, we finally made it to the Marienplazt, the town square.  Again, I'm going to use the word beautiful to describe this.  My favorite building on the planet is located here--the Neues Rathaus, which is the new town all.  BEAUTIFUL!!!

The old townhouse, along with many shops and cafes were in Marienplatz as well.  After that we headed to the Virkualiensmarkt, which is an extremely large open air market selling everything from meats to crafts.  I got a sandwich, ice cream, and a few little woodland creatures :)  There was also a large Maypole which brought me back to the days of Hillside Elementary and May Day.  Anyways, the may pole signified what goods were being sold at the market.

Next stop was St. Peter's Church, which is one of the oldest buildings in Munich--very pretty :)

After that we walked around some more and headed towards the Residenz (home of the Wittlebachs) and towards the Englischer Garten, two times bigger than NYC's Central Park.  Along the way we encountered a gigantic protest against the use of nuclear power.  It was huge and took over the Residenz.  We broke our way through the crowds and headed towards the park.

We meandered back through town towards the Hofbrauhaus for some dinner and beer.  We ordered meatloaf, and forgot that meatloaf in Germany is more like Spam--Brenda had encountered this at lunch.  But we did get some delicious German potato salad and pretzels :)  I ordered a litre beer for kicks and giggles, and it was so huge I had to use 2 hands to lift it...slightly embarrassing.

After the Hofbrauhaus we made our way back to the hostel, where there was almost a smackdown.  A girl from North Korea, who didn't know English stole Brenda's bed, which was a bottom bunk.  We had marked the beds that they were ours when we first arrived.  Anyways, after much yelling and interpretating, things got straightened out, and they switched beds.  But, it was so noisey that we didn't sleep anyways.  We left early Sunday morning for the airport.


All in all it was a great trip.  I LOVED Germany, and had a blast.  On the other hand, Brenda didn't care for it as much...but it was definitely my favorite country I've been too.  I hope to go again really soon, and visit Fussen and the castle there, which inspired Disney's princess castles. 


I'm using this week to catch up on some schoolwork before Katie, James, and I (possibly Michelle too) leave for the Dingle Penninsula and the Ring of Kerry.


Update soon!
Christy

Dublin for the Weekend

Hello Blogreaders! I hope you all are doin mighty fine and enjoying the sunshine if you've seen it.  I hear it was pretty tretcherous back on the East Coast last week (but that's just a glimpse of the weather here...or rather, weather to be).  Oh, and I have news, Brenda's here! Woot! But going onwards, here's a recap of the past week.

On Tuesday night James, Katie, and I went to Trad on the Prom down in Salthill.  It was a good, educational time.  Trad on the Prom consisted of various Irish musicians and dancers who performed for about two hours.  Throughout the performance they explained the various Irish instruments and their origins.  My favorite instrument was the Ilan (spelling?) Pipes.  Ilan is Gaelic for elbow, so these were similar to bag pipes, except instead of blowing in the pipes to make them play, you use your elbow to pump air through them.  It was quite intreaguing, and I hope I run into them again soon!  There was also an Irish singer who sung a few songs, one of them being with Sting (except he wasn't actually there, so it was just the Irish guy singing).  He had a wonderful voice, and I particularly enjoyed Galway Girl :)

Wednesday wasn't too exciting--it was a day to catch up on some readings so I don't get horribly behind.  Next week is going to be insane trying to catch up on everything! Definitely not looking forward to it!  On Thursday Katie, Jessica, Jess, Michelle, and Jess's Irish roommate, Keira, and I decided to go out for the night.  Of course we started off at Fibber's and got some cocktails before working our way downtown towards Sonny's where we spent most of our night.  It was a fun night and I enjoyed hanging out with everyone, as always :)

On Friday I was supposed to meet Brenda at the Shannon Airport around 9:30 am when her flight came in.  Howeverrrr, her flight was cancelled and she was rerouted.  Her new flight was not due in until 4:10 pm.  I went to the bus station around 2 to catch a bus to Shannon, and it was full--along with another overflow bus!  So I waited an hour and hopped on the next one hoping that Brenda would still be there.  After running through the airport and outside looking for her, I realized that her flight had actually been delayed.  Somehow everything worked out, and Brenda came through declarations within 10 minutes of me being at the airport.  We took the bus to Galway and stopped at Supermacs for dinner.

Saturday morning we took the 8:15 City Link bus to Dublin.  We got into the city center around 10:30 and found a hop on hop off bus right away. Our first stop was Trinity College and the Book of Kells, which are extremely old manuscripts of the Bible.  Personally, I thought this attraction was overrated.  We had to pay E8 and for that price we got to peek over tourists' shoulders to look at two open pages of the book.  The illustrated page was pretty cool, I have to admit, but you could see it on the brochure too and save E8!

Our next stop was the National Library and Museum.  The library had an exhibition of W.B. Yeats, and it was neat seeing all of his work after just learning about him in our Imagining Modern Ireland class.  We then ventured to the museum where there were all kinds of Irish artifacts.  Perhaps the most interesting artifacts the museum held were bog bodies.  These were found in bogs all throughout Ireland, but mainly on the western coast.  These bodies are hundreds of years old, yet still well preserved.  The bog land is extremely acidic, and if you have read my previous blog about Connemara, you'll know that we have already visited the bog and have learned all about these strange bodies.  It was cool, yet very eery, seeing these!

The next actual stop was Dublin Castle, however we passed St. Stephen's Green, Merrion Square, the Leinster House, and the Mansion House (home to Dublin's Lord Mayor).  The castle wasn't at all a typical castle--it was more like a large government building.  However, it did have a little watch tower and chapel attatched to the back.  We didn't go into the castle, but did enter the chapel, which was very quaint.

We also saw the city hall, which was right outside the castle.  After the castle we headed to Charles Beatty's Library, which was actually a museum that housed an exhibition dedicated to various religions.  This was sooo much better then the Book of Kells, and it was free!  The Christianity section housed many different icons and Biblical passages dating back to 250 AD.  I couldn't believe that they were fragments of the actual passages!  If you are ever in Dublin, this is one hidden treasure that I recommend you finding!

Afterwards we headed to Christ Church Cathedral, which was the oldest Anglo-Norman infrastructure in the Dublin area.  We didn't go inside because you had to pay, but the outside itself was breathtaking.  There is also an exhibit, Dublina, here dedicated to the Viking area.

After this cathedral we ventured towards St. Patrick's Cathedral, the National Cathedral of Ireland.  Although this is the National Cathedral of Ireland, it is protestant, as are many of the other old famous churches in Ireland.  Many of the old Catholic churches in Ireland are in ruins because the British would burn the roofs of Catholic churches, demolishing them.  Also, many present Catholic cathedrals are modern and built relatively late, as is the Cathedral in Galway (built in the 1960s).

After St. Patrick's, we hopped back on the bus and headed towards the Guiness Storehouse.  Katie, Jess, Michelle, and I went here while Brenda and Jessica went to Kilmanhem Jail.  The Store house was very neat, and very modern.  It wasn't an actual factory tour, but each of the 7 floors represented a different aspect of Guiness--from ingredients to taste-testing to advertising.  The advertisements with the zoo keeper were quite comical.  Also, the museum housed many different Guiness artifacts from over the years including old bottles to charity advertisements.  One antique that I fancied in particular was an old glass Guiness owl used to collect money at pubs for charity.  He was cute, and I wish I had him, of course.  At the top of the Storehouse was the Gravity Bar, which was completely enclosed in glass.  Not only did you get your complimentary pint up here, but you had great 360 degrees views of the city.  Also, the museum itself was in the shape of a giant pint, and if it was an actually pint, it would hold 14.3 million pints of Guiness!  It was pretty neat! The factory itself takes up over 6000 acres of land--so pretty large!

After the Guiness Storehouse we headed back towards the Temple Bar and checked into our hostel.  We then went out to eat at the Temple Bar and I got steak.  It was very yummy, and very expensive--but Brenda was here, and it called for celebration :)  We then retreated back to the hostel for an early nights sleep.

We got up fairly early the next morning and went down for breakfast.  Sunday was free pancake day...but these were definitely no American pancakes, which was rather depressing.  I'll have to indulge in them when I venture back to America I suppose.  Anyways, they tasted like flour tortillas, so I ate toast.  We checked out and then hopped on the bus towards Marrion Square (Europe's largest square) and saw a statue dedicated to Oscar Wilde.  We then went to St. Stephen's Green and walked around the lake.  After that Katie, Jess, Michelle and I went to the Kilmanhem Jail while Brenda and Jess went to the Storehouse. We didn't go in as you had to pay, so we walked around the outside.  Kilmanhem Jail was where many of the nationalists in the 1916 Easter Rising were held and executed, included Patrick Pearse.  Also, this jail was FULL during the potato famine.  People would steal food just to get caught so they could stay in jail and have at least one gaurenteed meal a day.  Families and children were also in here due to the lack of welfare system back in the 1840's.

After that we all met back up and headed towards Grafton Street, Dublin's shopping area.  I ran into H&M and bought my boots, which are quite snazzy, by the way :)  Grafton St. was a glorified Shops Street (Galway), but it was a good time walking around.  We also saw a statue guy, and I felt bad because pigeons kept landing on him.  There was also a guy making bubbles, and that was cute :)  Afterwards we walked towards the bus station, but along the way we found the bus, and ended up getting on a bit earlier then planned.

Oh, and Michelle and I met a leprechaun too!!! :D

Yesterday I took Brenda into Galway and showed her around before headed back to classes.  She bought some goodies, of course.  After she got back we headed down to Salthill so I could show her the beach.  We also ate down along the shore at a nice restaurant.

We are going to the Quays Pub tonight to listen to some music...should be a good time!

LoveLove,
Christy