RAG Week!

The last week has been chaotic, but so much fun! For starters, it was rag week here at NUIG. RAG (Raising And Giving) week is a week of charity where students go to pubs and clubs all over town and the proceeds go to different charities. However, at NUIG, many of the students use it as an excuse to miss class and party all day every day. On Monday, we noticed that things were a little different in our apartment village, Gort Na Coiribe. There were gates up by the entrance and security guards manning them. Apparently, the last two years got so out of hand with destruction and partying that only students who lived in the apartments would be allowed in and out of the village. This was a slight problem because my friends who are studying abroad in London, Hanna and Kelsey, were visiting us on Wednesday. However, we talked to our reception office and they told us that they would put the girls on a VIP list so they could stay with us. Phew!
So Monday, we went to our class then gathered at the college bar to reconnect with other Arcadia students and begin our rag week. We went out Monday night and it was a LOT busier than normal, and the Irish students seemed to be even crazier than usual. A crowd of hundreds of students packed outside of Supermacs (a local fastfood restaurant), apparently it is tradition to rage outside after bar close. I couldn't believe how many people were out and how it was no problem that they were outside chanting, dancing, and climbing the light posts. Definitely a sight to see!
Tuesday was "Donegal Tuesday." I'm not exactly sure what the history behind this day is, but the tradition is for hundreds of students to put on green and yellow Donegal jerseys and flock to a tiny pub, the Hole in the Wall where they queue up at the pub around 10am. A few of the girls and I walked into town after class at 11:30am to witness the tradition. We got lunch afterwards and then I came home to do homework. That night, we went out and ended up at a pub called The Skeffington Arms or "The Skeff" for short. Krissy and I made friends with some Irish lads and we spent the night talking with them about differences and similarities between America and Ireland and dancing (by "dancing" I mean attempting to Irish jig and being swung around do-si-do style) to Irish music!
On Wednesday, Hanna and Kelsey came from London to visit Jenni and I! It was so much fun to pick them up and show them Galway since we had visited them at their school in London. It was great to see the familiar faces of some of our good Gustavus friends! We got them settled in our flat, then went to dinner at the King's Head with our friends Scott, Josh, Prin, and Scott's friend from home, Nathan. We went out with that group after and had a super fun night at the Front Door, where we met up with another 10 or 15 Arcadia students. Jenni and I finally are starting to recognize Irish students when we go out, and it was really fun to be able to say hi and talk to people at pubs that we know! The Front Door played so many American classic songs like Brown Eyed Girl, Livin' On A Prayer, American Pie, Twist and Shout, I Want You Back, Wagon Wheel, and lots of others so we had a great time singing them at the top of our lungs.
On Thursday, Jenni and I had class early so we met Hanna and Kelsey for lunch. During lunch, we ran into our first surprise medical crisis - Kelsey had chipped her two front teeth when she was in fourth grade and has inserts that have never fallen out. Kelsey was opening her Powerade bottle with her teeth and all of a sudden, she freaked out because one of the inserts had fallen out so she had a large chip in her front tooth. We spent the afternoon making calls, and trying to figure out where Kelsey could find a dentist back in London. After she talked to her mom, her study abroad advisor, and her dentist, she figured out that she would be fine for the weekend and since the root wasn't exposed or anything, she would be able to eat normally. It was quite the shock and not how any of us expected to spent our Thursday afternoon, but Kelsey was a champ and recovered well. We also learned a lot about what to do in emergency situations! While Kelsey was making phone calls back in the apartment with Jenni, I took Hanna to explore Galway in the daylight. We walked down to Nimmos Pier to take the classic "colorful houses on the water" selfie then looked in a few different shops while Hanna perused the Claddagh rings and other Irish souvenirs. We got giant mocha carmello coffees at my favorite coffee shop, Elle's, while we waited for Jenni and Kelsey to join us for dinner. We ate at a cute restaurant called The Cellar where we sampled a variety of different yummy pastas. We then came back to our apartment and met up with some of our friends to go out. We wanted to show the girls traditional Irish music so we went to Taaffes, a local pub that always has a great trad music band. A bunch of the other students met us there and we had a great night. I'm so happy that I know the words to so many of the Irish songs now! We came back at a decent hour because Friday was our Cliffs of Moher day! I'll blog about that soon :)

First night of Rag Week - MN girls!

Reunited with Hanna and Kelsey!

Listening to Trad Music on Thursday with Hanna

Killarney Weekend!

It's no secret that Ireland is an amazing place to live, but the gravity of this fact has sunk in and resonated with me quite a bit over the past few weeks. I am so lucky to be living in a place that I fall more and more in love with each day.

Last weekend, the Arcadia program took all of its students to Killarney for the weekend. We were originally supposed to go to Belfast, but because there are protests there, they made the judgement call to take us to Killarney in County Kerry for the weekend. Forty or so of the Arcadia students at NUIG piled into a coach bus at 10am Friday morning (February 15^th) and journeyed two hours to Limerick to pick up 10-15 Arcadia students studying at the University there. We stopped in an adorable town called Adare for a snack/bathroom break and were able to stretch our legs and walk around town. We took a few pictures and got coffee then got back on the bus. Our next stop was a guided visit of Muckross House which is a beautiful Victorian mansion which was completed in 1843. We got to explore some of the rooms and watch a woman knit Muckross scarves and hats which are beautiful, and sold all over Ireland. One of the boys in the program jokingly asked if he could try and to our surprise, the woman at the loom let him!

After the tour, we were able to walk around outside and photograph the beautiful Muckross Lake and Torc & Mangerton Mountains surrounding the house. We then checked into our youth hostel, Neptunes, explored the city a bit, and checked back in with out group for dinner at the Gleneagle Hotel Killarney. We had a lovely dinner then went and checked out of a few of the local pubs. We found live music which was wonderful – a man and his fifteen year old son played a set at Danny Man's that we listened to for a while. We were all tired though, so we came back to the hostel and went to bed fairly early. The next day was our day o' tourism! We got breakfast at the hostel then walked to a nearby Cathedral where our coach bus picked us up and drove us to the Gap of Dunloe, an incredible scenic area with valleys, lakes, and mountains. We started our journey through the 7 mile pass of the mountains at Kate Kearney's Cottage where four students each piled into a horse-drawn jaunty car! This was a wonderful way to see the mountains because it felt like we were actually in with the beauty, instead of just observing it from afar. Our jaunty car driver was a nice Irish man who had graduated from Cork last year. It was fun to talk with him about college in Ireland. He explained to us that the horses pulling the cars belonged to 30 different families who rotate out each week or so and that he works for his father and grandfather.

After the jaunty carriage ride, we went to lunch at a rest stop at a Cottage by the lake. We were all a little chilly and wet, so we happily ate our free soup, cocoa and sandwiches. After lunch, we walked down to the lake and were greeted by 5 12-person boats. We put on our life jackets and squashed into a boat where we set off for an hour and a half ride through the Lakes of Killarney. For the first half hour, we were all in awe of the natural beauty surrounding our boats and had a great time taking pictures, talking with our guide, and enjoying the scenery. However, the longer we were in the boats, the colder, windier, and rainier the weather got. By the end of the trip, none of us could even hold conversations because we were so cold! We met the other groups on shore and waited for our bus, huddling together for warmth. When the bus arrived, we all hopped on it as fast as we could and rode back to the hostel for hot showers and rest before dinner. Some of the girls and I decided to explore Killarney a bit before dinner and we went to a pub and tried Irish coffees (we got Bailey's instead of whiskey). We met up with the group around 7 and walked to another hotel where we were given a beautiful buffet-style meal. After dinner, we found a great pub where about 15-20 of the Arcadia students spent the rest of the night. The pub surprisingly had another section that turned into a club later in the night, so we spent the night dancing with our large group of students, which was really fun.

The next morning, we got to sleep in a little, then we went to another hotel where we listened to a talk by a local story-teller & folklorist. He told us stories about his experiences growing up in Killarney which was very neat – it obviously meant a lot to him that he was able to share his life with us. We got lunch in Killarney and shopped around a bit, we found an wool sweater market and I was so tempted to buy one but I think I'm going to wait until the end of my trip for an Aran Islands sweater.
I'll post another blog about the last week later today!

Adare

Muckross Scarves

Muckross House

Muckross Lake and Torc & Mangerton Mountains

Gap of Dunloe

On the jaunty car ride!

Mountains of the McGuillycuddy Reeks

Jaunty Cars!

On our boat tour

Lakes of Killarney

Impulsive Adventures Are The Best Kind

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” 
-Eleanor Roosevelt

Last week, my friend Krissy and I had decided that since weren't leaving the country, we wanted to see more of Ireland, but we vaguely left it at that. On Friday morning, Krissy came over to plan where we would adventure the following day. We brainstormed a few places and landed on Wicklow Mountains National Park, where P.S. I Love You, Braveheart, Leap Year, and a few other movies were filmed. We figured it would work best to do a full day tour on Saturday or Sunday and when Friday morning rolled around, we began making travel plans (impulsive, I know). There was a bit of a wrench thrown into our plans when we realized that the only time the bus left that we could use our student discount on was at 6:30pm and the only time it would return is 7am. With some hectic plan-changing, we opted for the 6:30pm bus on Friday (about 4 hours from the time we first started planning) so that we could spend Friday night in Dublin and do the 8:20am tour of Wicklow the next day. We booked our hostel, tour, called the bus company, packed our things, and were on our way. Right before we left, Krissy got an unexpected call from the tour company. Our tour guide, Damien, apologetically explained to Krissy that since we were the only two signed up for the full day tour, they would be unable to do it - but we could still do a half day tour. We were a little bummed but looked on the bright side and figured that we'd have more time in the morning to see Dublin in the daytime. 

Traveling is always a little stressful, making sure all of the transportation is on time, all of your belongings are on your person, trying not to get left behind by your bus...... but sometimes, these things happen. Thankfully, Krissy and I got to the coach station with plenty of time to spare. We chatted with our bus driver, sat on the bus for a while, and right before 6:30, I decided that it might be a good idea to use the toilet before the 3 hour drive. Krissy and I got off the bus and frantically asked our driver if we'd have time to go. He replied with comforting, "Yes, yes, just hurry." We hurried, and as we were walking back towards our platform, I said, "Wouldn't it be funny if they left without us?" Maybe I jinxed it, or maybe it was just our luck, but when we arrived back at our platform, our bus was gone. After a moment of thinking, "Is this some kind of cruel Irish joke that the driver plays on tourists?", we got our wits about us and I marched up to the woman at the front desk and explained our predicament. She ended up calling the company, who called the driver, who had the bus come back and pick us up. Our driver greeted us with a playful "Nice of you to join us, ladies" and unable to make a clever comeback, I retorted with a look of pure terror. Apparently he had seen two other blonde girls in the back of the bus and figured it was us.

The trip to Dublin went smoothly, we arrived around 9pm and checked into our hostel (back at Abbey Court - the hostel we stayed in during orientation a month ago.) We shared a cool moment when we walked into the hostel with over a month of study abroad experience under our belts, and the realization of personal growth that we have had since we first arrived in Ireland.

We ended up getting Thai noodles for dinner at a hole-in-the-wall place by our hostel, then decided to check out a few of the pubs to try to find live music. After walking through the Temple bar area and checking out two or three crowded pubs with DJs, we found our way to Farringtons and were instantly greeted by a traditional Irish band playing all kinds of great Irish songs (that I am finally learning the words t0!) We ended up staying at Farringtons much later than we were expecting to stay out, but we met some wonderful people. There is something to be said about Irish hospitality - but I will write more about the friendly people later.

The next morning, Krissy and I got up, got breakfast, and walked around the streets of Dublin, poking into shops and enjoying the rare sunshine. We planned on meeting our tour group at 12:15 but when we arrived at the location, and a man walked up to us from a small gold car, we were both thinking that he had made some kind of mistake. Damien explained to us that since we weren't able to do a full day tour, the company decided to upgrade us to a private tour instead, where we were kind of guinea pigs for a new system where they take out groups of 2-4 and see a much more detailed tour of Dublin, the coast, Wicklow and Glendalough. It started sinking in when we sat down on the comfy seats of the car that lucky could not begin to describe how we were feeling - it was the first beautiful day in two weeks, we had our own personal tour guide, and we would be experiencing some of the most beautiful sights we'd ever seen. 

Damien was a wonderful tour guide, only a few minutes into the tour I already felt like I knew more about Dublin than I ever had before. He began the tour by taking us to Windmill Lane Studio/the only place where graffiti is encouraged in Dublin, and the place where U2 and Bono record. He then took us down the coast to Dublin bay, an area that I could have spent all day in. We were greeted by palm trees, people swimming (crazy, right?), and the aroma of the ocean. The view was beautiful and Damian let us get out of the car at Forty Foot, where people have been swimming year round for 250 years. We also walked along Bullock Harbor, where seals often lie out on the rocks!
Our next stop was Bono's house, and we got out to take pictures by the famous gates, with lyrics written on them. Damien warned us not to touch the gates because "they would talk to you." Intrigued, I asked what they would say, and Damien responded with a smile, "STEP AWAY FROM THE GATES!" 

After this, we nestled into our seats to enjoy the scenery on the way to Wicklow Mountains National Park. Damien told us frightening stories about the bogs on the way up the mountains swallowing travelers and that a good indication of a deathly bog are the "warning flowers" - beautiful white and yellow flowers that bloom in the summer. The mountains are also usually covered in beautiful purple flowers, but since it is February, not much is in bloom. Personally, I didn't think the mountains could get anymore beautiful, so I can only imagine what they look like in the summertime. Damien enjoyed showing us where the scene that Holly meets Jerry in P.S. I Love You was filmed and helped us recreate a few pictures saying that they wouldn't be complete without a map! We marveled at the breathtaking views for a while, walking along the road and taking photos of Guinness Lake (a lake that is shaped like a giant pint of Guinness and was a wedding present given by someone in the Guinness family back in the day), then hopped back in the car on our way to Glendalough Abbey.

The abbey was beautiful - Damien did a walking tour with us and explained an impressive amount of history about the cemetery and old churches in the area. As we walked through the arch of the abbey, Damien told us that the abbey had its own law and could protect people by offering sanctuary. He also pointed out a cross that was carved into a rock directly to the right of the entrance. He told us that it was the most important cross in Glendalough but many people miss it because it is not very obvious. The cross was shaped differently from any that I'd seen before. It was wide at the bottom and more narrow at the top and carved into the "Sanctuary Stone" but is now known as the "Glendalough Cross" and can be seen on necklaces and in homes all over Ireland. Damien let Krissy and I explore the park encompassing two lakes and told us to meet him back by the visitor's center for tea or coffee in an hour or so. Krissy and I enjoyed this immensely - it was so nice to have ample time to soak in the natural beauty of the place and we were able to take lots of pictures of the lakes and forest surrounding them. 

We met Damien for scones and hot beverages afterwards and left the place around 5. Damien played Irish music for us in the car ride back and we both had trouble keeping our eyes open. We were sad to say goodbye to Damien, but thanked him graciously for his time and knowledge. We were so lucky to have a tour guide that knew so much, but also was flexible and let us explore. Damien recommended a pub called O'Neill's (shoutout to CLAIRE) and we stopped to get fish & chips before catching our bus at 6:45 back to Galway. We slept for most of the ride and both went to bed early when we got back. 

The "U2 Studio"

 

 

Forty Foot Beach

Bullock Harbor

Bono's House

 

Wicklow Mountains National Park

Guinness Lake

The P.S. I Love You Road

Entrance to the Glendalough Abbey

The Glendalough Cross

The Cemetery 

Glendalough

Exploring the Lakes

Ending the day with Fish & Chips!

O'Neill's

This was truly an unforgettable adventure and I am looking forward to many more!