Belfast or Burst

After I finished a marathon of finals on Friday I decided it would be nice to see parts of Ireland that I hadn't before. So I went to Belfast with Pete. He was the only one that didn't have to worry about finals over the weekend, which meant that he was the only friend willing to go with me. Saturday morning we got up early and headed to the bus station to take a delightful weekend holiday to Belfast.

Welcome to Belfast!

The bus ride there was surprisingly unpleasant. First, the couple in front of us started going at it and they were gross. Then I decided it was a good idea to drink a lot of water during the first part of our journey. Which meant that during the second part of the journey I had to pee really bad. And I was hungry. So I was really thankful to get to Belfast.

Our view. Yeah, it was bad.

Our hostel was located on Donegall Road, which we heard was about a 20 minute walk from the bus station. Unknowingly Pete directed us to Donegall Street, which is in the opposite direction of Donegall Road, just past Donegall Square West and no where near Donegall Place, which connects to Donegall Road where our hostel was. For not including County Donegal in Northern Ireland, they really like the name. After traffic cops pointed us in the right direction we finally got to our hostel in time for a good nap. Then we went out for dinner and wandered around Belfast. We walked to the City Hall where there was an international food market going on, which was really cool. Pete and I got coffee/hot chocolate with Baileys, and it was good.

City Hall with a Christmas tree and the international market.

The international market at night.

Me toasting my Baileys and hot chocolate to the "no drinking in this area" sign.

The waterfront area has a huge concert hall and other stuff around it as a new development for the peace process. Apperantly that area had been used for gang fights or whatnot. It's really pretty now.

Hearding sheep statues on the waterfront.

The water with a boat, the statue of thanksgiving, and a lit up bridge.

Pete and the statue of thanksgiving, he's so little!

Belfast has some sweet signs, including this one which says "no fouling" but it's ok because only steamy poo counts as fouling, and Pete's only going number 1.

Then we went to some mall and saw Casino Royale, which was good, and I don't usually like Bond movies. After that we walked home and went to bed. The next day I thought our view from the hostel was really pretty because of the clouds over the mountains, so I took a picture. If you look close (or click the picture to get a big version) you can see that the curbs on the left are painted red, white and blue, the colors of the Union Jack (not the American flag). And then tied up by the neck on one of the lampposts is a Hulk doll. This is rather interesting because the curbs mean that we were near a loyalist neighborhood, and the Hulk is green, like the color of the Irish republic and nationalism. That was kind of interesting to see, because it makes the troubles seem more real, even if they are supposed to be over.

The view from the hostel with the colored curbs and tied up Hulk.

Since it was Sunday morning Pete and I went to mass because it was my last Sunday in Ireland and I promised my mom I would go to church at least once. It wasn't much different from mass back home, except that it was 35 minutes long! And the priest had a sweet accent.

Look! I went to church!

Bike lane in Northern Ireland!

Then Pete and I wandered around some until our Black Taxi Tour, which is a popular type of tour to do up here. The taxi takes you around to the Protestant neighborhoods in the Shankill area, and the Catholic neighboorhoods in the Falls Road area. That whole idea of separation made me quite uneasy. As well as the massive wall that separates the neighborhoods. Now in these two areas there are many murals commemorating Protestant or Catholic heros and events that took place. They are quite disconcerting in some cases because they are glorifying drug dealers and thugs who have died. Or just unsavory people like Cromwell or William of Orange. This is when my camera died. So I don't have any pictures of the Cathloic neighborhoods or the peace wall. Which is really dissapointing, but they were very interesting to visit. Our taxi driver, Pat, was Catholic and gave us a very one-sided story, so it was good that Pete was there to tell me a bit more about the history.

If I were to buy a house here, I would make sure I couldn't see this mural from my window.

UFF stands for Ulster Freedom Fighters, a loyalist group. By the looks of it, they don't read and discuss books every other Wednesday night.

I think this was called the peace wall. It separates the two neighborhoods and still has gates going through that close at night.

After the taxi tour we were dropped off at city hall and got delicious Dutch pancakes that were covered with powdered sugar and toffee. Mmmm, so good. We did some shopping and then went back to the hostel for a rest. Pete then decided we should go for a walk before going to dinner, which sounded nice until the walk took over an hour and I was tired and hungry. But we did find a park to play in and that was fun. Pete hopped the fence, and then we discovered that if we just lifted the chain, we could open the gate and not have to jump over the fence. After our walk that took forever we started looking for this restaurant called Molly's Yard where we could get a chocolate pint. We wandered around for a good while and then discovered it was closed. So we ate at a Chinese place down the street and then went to Benedicts for a pint. That place was really cool on the inside, it was all oranate and pretty. The bar closed pretty early because it was Sunday and so we left and called it an early night.

On Monday we got up, ate some delicious breakfast and went home. Overall I really liked Belfast, the history there is really interesting. There is grafitti all over everywhere, so Tony, you'd really like it. And I'm sure they could use a "hugs" tag. Belfast kind of felt like Dublin, though it felt like there were fewer international people. Plus the buildings were taller, and so were the fences.

Finals or purgatory?

Finals:
I can't decided if taking finals here at UCD is like the military or cattle herding with Hitler. Maybe that's too harsh. Either way, finals here are ridiculous and deserve a post of their own to describe what maddness it is.

First, my classes all ended the last week of November and finals didn't start until the 13th of December. UCD students get a week off to study for finals, U of M students get 2 days, maybe. And those are usually Saturday and Sunday. So I spent a week and a half in the library trying to learn everything I didn't during the semester. Turns out that was the same thought of about half the student popluation of UCD. And with only one library on campus, space was tight, especially if you wanted a plug for your laptop. Which I need because all my notes are on my computer since that's just where I take notes (have I told you how cool my laptop is?). To get a decent space I had to turn up early everyday and claim my spot. The cool thing about the UCD library (otherwise known as the James Joyce Library) is that only students can get because we have to scan our student cards. So no creepos can get in and steal stuff, meaning people just leave their stuff, including laptops, and leave the library for breaks. It's awesome.

Enough of the library. Finals themselves are an experience to be reckoned with. I had four finals after classes got done with since I had already taken my Irish History exam. That was an introduction to what two and a half hours of writing can do to your hand. My exams were (in this order) HRD, marketing, finance, international business. Two were 2 hour exams and two were 3 hour exams, all written, all scary, all of them in places I had never been. So the Monday before I went with my friend Pete to Blackrock, which is where 2 of my exams were (though in different buildings), to find out how to get there and where these buildings were. This is a move that many study abroad students did not do, and I'm not quite sure why. They were rather lost when their finals came around.

The other two exams were in this place called RDS, which is basically a convention center. This was the most interesting experience, Bill and I wanted to take pictures. So basically they get 2,000 students together, in the same gigantic room, each person in their own little chair and desk for 2 hours. I've never heard such silence from so many people for so long. The room we examed in reminded me of the pig barn at the State Fair, with a balcony and without the pigs or smell. It was just one gigantic room, and rather intimidating for those used to taking exams in Carlson. For some reason this is just an accepted part of life for Irish students and they don't really mind being herded like cattle, yelled at to be quiet, and forced to write for hours (and most do take up the full time).

My final exam schedule was brutal but quite nice, I had two exams on the 13th, one on the 14th and one on the 15th and I was done. It was strange to hear people say at my last final that they were taking their first. I did get lucky though and I was able to get them out of the way and enjoy my last week in Ireland. So then Saturday I went to Belfast, and I'll post on that sometime soon.

Counting the days

I have 2 weeks now until I leave Ireland for home, and I've been reflecting quite a bit on my adventure here in Ireland. At times it seems like I haven't done enough, other times it seems like I've done a lot. I guess I'll just have to come back some time to make up for all the things I haven't done yet. Here are some of the things I will miss about Ireland and the things I do miss about home and am excited to go back to.

Ireland:

O'Connell Street and the Millenium Spire

• Abundance of cheesy chips
• The friends I've met and being able to easily hang out with them
• Buses with a top level (especially the number 10 that got me to wherever I wanted to go)
  
• Public transportation that will take me anywhere I want to go in Ireland
• Europe being so close
• People being so incredibly friendly
• Being able to go to bars with friends for a few drinks
  
• Slower pace of life with fewer pressures
• History everywhere
• The green grass
• Rainbows on an almost daily basis
• Tesco-brand anything (though I hear it's coming to the states!)
• Making jokes about the English and people understanding
• Classes three days a week
• Seeing sheep and cows everywhere
• Irish architecture
• Cheap texts and phone calls
• Meeting people from around the world
• Funny green exit signs
  

Home:

Our old backyard during what I think was spring break.

• Snow (but not the cold!)
• My family and friends
• Chip, Tipper, and Buffy
• My nook
• A normal amount of clothes
• Being able to say strange things without people thinking I'm strange
• House parties
• Jamba juice and delicious smoothies
  
• Target and knowing where to get things like school supplies, paper, anything...
• Multiple choice and short answer tests
• Baked potatoes with sour cream
• Being able to understand anyone when they talk
• The dollar and any sort of dollar menu
  
• Theme nights for no reason
• Cuddling
• Double chocolate fudge cake from Zeno
• Working internet
• Being able to talk to my friends
• My purple fuzzy slippers
  

Tony in Ireland.

Tony came to Ireland the Friday after Thanksgiving. The poor kid didn't know he had to endure a whole day of travelling and then a whole day of walking around Dublin with me. Ha.

Hey, check it out, Tony's in Ireland!

It was nice to have my brother in Ireland, we have loads of fun together. And we did have loads of fun together. These are all the pictures I have from my camera, we took a bunch in Dun Laoighire, but they were all on Tony's camera. Thanks to Mom I have a new fabulous camera that I'm very excited about. Thanks Mom! So this is what I did with my brother.

Friday:
Tony came into Dublin and made friends with someone who we didn't see again. After a long bus ride home we dropped off his stuff and set out for the day. Our first destination was the Guinness Storehouse for a tour of how they make beer. After walking to a wall with a sign that said "Guinness" we continued to walk along that wall until Tony realized the storehouse was up a few blocks. I thought Tony needed a walk anyway.

Ireland had suggestive advertising.

Tony found where they keep the fifth ingredient to Guinness, Aurthur Guinness.

Here's to drinking early in the day!

Tony found this sign really amusing.

After Guinness we had lunch at the Brazen Head pub, what is claimed to be the oldest pub in Dublin. It was also recommended by Dave King, so we had to go. It was delicious. Then we went to the Jameson Distillery and learned about how whiskey was made. Very interesting. I became an official Irish whiskey taster and also learned that I prefer Paddy to Jameson. The things you learn abroad!

I'm official!

After drinking throughout the day Tony was tired. So we took a nap for awhile and then cooked dinner. I decided to become a master chef this weekend for Tony and Friday night we had chicken curry and rice. De-lish! But very spicey. That night we went to the student bar for a few drinks and then Jessica and Steve came it. It was a late but very chill night.

Saturday & Sunday:
See blog below.

Monday:
I had class for most of the day and decided to let Tony to sleep for a bit. A bit turned out to be until 1 o'clock. I made him pancakes and pushed him out the door. That'll be the last time I send someone into a strange city and tell them to have fun. Poor Tony wandered all around Dublin. Thankfully he made it home and we made dinner of delicious pasta and sausage. That was another quiet night as well considering I had a final in Irish history on Wednesday.

Tony and his sausage necklace. Isn't he cute?

Tuesday:
Tony and I had a nice lie in and then went out for the day. We explored the shops of Dublin looking for a pea coat for Tony. Unfortunately they either lacked the right size or buttons. So we bought a sweater and a hat instead. It was wonderful. After that we made our way to Dun Laoighire to wander around the bay. We walked out on the break water, towards the lighthouse, and got some sweet views of Dublin Bay. Tony conspired with the Irish Sea and told me to go touch the sea, when really he knew the sea was going to attack me. I had one wet foot for the rest of the trip.

After our excursion to the bay we went back to UCD where Pete made us a delicious dinner and we got our drink on. This is because it was Tony's last night and we had to give him a good ole' Irish farewell. We met up with some of my roommates and friends at Doyle's and took up residence for the night. Good times were had and we tried Baby Guinnesses for the first time. Delish! My first ever fancy shot. At bar close we made our way home and Tony made friends with some bushes outside my apartement.

Tony made friends with the swans in the UCD lake.

Tony made friends with Hannah.

Tony drank all the Guinness and didn't make friends with Jordan.

The next day we got up and got ready for the day. I took Tony to the bus stop where I would give him his delightful send off back to jolly old Duluth. He made it to the airport ok, but not exactly Duluth. Silly weather. I then took to studying for my 3 hour written final for Irish history. What a long time to write! My hand was dying.

I'm very happy that my brother got to see Ireland, especially more than just Dublin. He's good fun to hang out with, and I wish he would visit me more. One of the best things about being here is that visiting me is a good excuse to go to a country people have never been. So thank you all (Mom, Dad, Tony, Steve, and Jessica) who have visited me!

Thanksgiving and Galway

They don't usually celebrate Thanksgiving in Ireland. Which quite the shame considering it's my favorite holiday. But I celebrated anyway, along with fourteen others on Thursday night. Then Friday Tony came to Dublin along with Jessica and Steve later that night. What a day! We've had a good weekend traversing the country and wandering around without really knowing what was going on. It was nice to have more people visit me, I like showing people around Dublin and exploring new places. This is just the account of my weekend with friends from the Midwest. I'll update on Tony's visit next.

The city of Galway, all decorated for Christmas!

Saturday morning we all got up early to catch a train across the country to Galway. It was a nice, sleepy, uneventful train ride. We landed in Galway about 10ish and got our hotel rooms sorted out and found a bus to take us to the ferry to take us to the Aran Islands. The Aran Islands are a set of 3 islands off the coast of Galway, which is on the west coast of Ireland for those who didn't know. We went to the largest one known as Inis Mor. It was 9 miles long and 3 miles wide. On the ferry over I found out that I get sea sick, so that was unhappy. Except it started out really fun splashing about in the huge waves.

Me, Steve and Jessica on the bus to the ferry that went to the Aran Islands.

Steve, Jessica, and Tony sleeping on the ferry.

Once we got to the island we realized we had no idea what to do, because it was a bit cold for biking like I thought sounded fun. Luckily someone shouted to us for a tour of the island. So we went about the island with narration from Rory, who had the sweetest accent I've heard yet. He left us on our own to explore the ring fort on the west coast of the island, which has these amazing cliffs. It was nothing short of amazing. And really windy too. I waved across the Atlantic to home, so I hope you saw me. We toured around the island and learned some interesting things. Like there are only 800 people who live there, and they all speak Irish. They also build so many stone fences as a way to clear the stones from the fields, and also, obviously, to mark territory. All in all, the Aran Islands are really cool and the four of us discussed how it would be nice to retire there or something. I decided that would be a bad idea because I would never want to take a ferry that often.

That looks dangerous Tony! (Don't worry Mom, it wasn't really)

Steve, Jessica and Tony hanging out on one of the 5 billion limestone walls on Inis Mor.

The half-ring fort of Dun Aonghasa. Beats me on how to pronounce that.

We found a kitty!

Donkey and old thatched roof barn. There are lots of those on the island.

That night we ate a delicious dinner, I had turkey and most of Jessica's potatoes. Afterwards we got cleaned up and went out for a night on the town with Tony's friend Nellie. She was conveniently staying in Galway the same weekend as us! Which made for an awesome mid-west reunion. I heard news about people from high school that I never thought I would hear about again. But it was really fun hanging out with her and she'll hopefully be spending her last night in Dublin with me before she heads back to Minnesota.

Nellie and Tony looking happy to see each other.

Me ruining a super-cute picture with Jessica.

Unfortunately we had to leave Galway for other fun adventures around Ireland. We barely got Jessica off to the airport in time (thanks to my general unobservance of the main street in Dublin being closed). Thankfully though she made her flight and got her dad a gift from duty-free! Life is good!

The train on the way back to Dublin looked like a den. Jessica said it was only missing a loon.

London bridge is falling down...

Actually it's not, I haven't gained that much weight. So November has been my month of travel, in accordance, I went to London, England this past weekend. It was loads of fun, Molly, Des and I had a good time being confused with the underground system, being able to only get take away the first night and then never knowing where to go to do things. Oh, traveling is wonderful. Here is the account of my travels to London:

Thursday:
This week we left early to maximize our time in England. We left around 4pm about half an hour after I packed. I barely remembered to bring underwear and socks, and definitly forgot to bring pajama bottoms (how embarassing!). The flight was good, uneventful, which is saying a lot for Ryanair. We had to take a train to get into London and then took the Underground (mind the gap!) to get nearer our hostel. After we dropped our stuff off we went out in search of food at about 11pm. Turns out that's closing time for like... every restaurant in that area of London. So after trying in vain to find a dine-in place we brought take-away Chinese food back to the hostel.

The hostel was fun in the way that I've become a better person for staying there. Here's a picture of our room:

Molly getting ready for our first day out.

Looks nice right? Well, in most aspects it was very nice. Except that the shower is just a stall at the end of the bunk on the right. No surrounding bathroom, or even space to get undressed. So we had to turn our heads whenever someone wanted to shower. Then we had to walk down the hall and down some stairs to get to a bathroom, which isn't a problem. Except there was only one toilet without a sink, which meant that we had to walk back to our room to wash our hands. It was just very strange. Especially because I had to get fully dressed every morning before peeing because I had no real pajama bottoms. Well, only two mornings, because the third I was tired of it and just walked to the toilet in my (new union jack!) underwear. Enough about the hostel.

Friday:
It was quite a rainy day Friday so we decided to spend it shopping, and what better place to shop than the biggest department store in Britain? Harrods! But first we had to find out how to get there. Thankfully some nice English lady noticed we were lost and gave us directions to the store. That was the start of our realization that the English give poor directions. What was suppposed to take 20 minutes took about twice that and we had to ask two more people for directions. But we had a nice stroll through Hyde Park!

Molly and I hanging out at Hyde Park.

This picture is funny because Des is Canadian and so are the geese. They got along well.

We had to walk down this road. I puked a little because of it.

Harrods! It's the brownish building with all the flags and takes up and entire block!

After shopping for a long while we went back to our part of town and I got my hair cut at Aveda. What an experience! I got a sweet back massage and tea. Their shampoo and everything smell really good, so it was a cool experience. Though I'm not sure how much I like the swoopy bangs, the rest of my hair is nice and I'm glad I got it done.

Not sure if I like my new hair cut. Swoopy bangs don't really work on me.

Later that night Des, Molly and I went out around Picadilly Circus and found a place to go watch a movie. It was a low key night due to the unfriendlyness of the rain. There were three movies playing at the theater, Saw 3, Borat and Scenes of a Sexual Nature. Of course we saw the last one. A very strange and very Brittish movie. It's like the anti-Love Actually. After that we were tuckered out and went back to the hostel for some good sleep.

Des and Molly hanging out after the rain.

Saturday:
This day was meant to be our tourist day. Being that, we took a bus tour around London and also went on the London Eye which is a big ferris wheel-like thing. Everyone gets into these big pods that fit like 15 people and you slowly go around. It takes about a half hour so you sort of get your 13pound money's worth. The line was ridiculous though, so Des and I went out in search of tea and cheesy chips to keep us warm in queue. We got three orders of cheesy chips for the three of us, which was actually a bit much. But we ate all of them! The people in line were jealous of our ingenious idea. I could tell.

The London Eye from the view of in line. Notice the little crown on the lamppost. That signifies that this area is under the crown for something. I'm not really sure what the area is called but it means that all the money-making places in this area have to give a cut of profits to the queen.

Molly and I waiting in line to get tickets to wait in another line.

The view from the eye! Also the only real picture that came out.

After the Eye we went and got tickets to a show for that night because apperantly London has a lot of theaters. Strangely enough we saw a show all about Motown and the songs that came from there. But it was really good and totally worth it to see old Brittish ladies dancing along to the music. After the show we wandered around the area and I think went to Soho, which is a bit sketchy. We discovered that people in London dress to the nines when they go out, and we weren't dressed as such. So it made it difficult to choose a place to go for a drink. When we did find just a regular pub there was a 3pound cover! Who charges to get into a pub? So then we just went back to the hostel for a quiet night.

The Houses of Parliament and the clock tower at night.

The London Eye at night. So pretty!

Sunday:
We started this day off with a traditional English breakfast which consisted of bacon, sausages, baked beans, grilled tomato, toast, eggs and tea. It was... ok. I'm not a real big fan of the sausages, beans for breakfast or sunny side up eggs. But, I'm glad I tried it. We then went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the gaurds, and had some fun along the way. We got there about an hour early and the place was already teeming with people. When it finally got to be time to change the gaurds there were tons of people around. Really quite amazing. My favorite thing about it was the little boy behind me who said that the soldier was carrying a floppy sword. Brittish accents on children always crack me up. The changing of the guards is an interesting affair, and the soldiers look a bit ridiculous with their tall fuzzy hats, stomping around and yelling. Buckingham palace was really pretty, quite large. I accidentally called it a castle and someone corrected me. So don't make that mistake when you go to London.

I just think this is a pretty picture. This is a war memorial because the English fight a lot of wars. The red wreaths are to commemorate those who died fighting.

This is the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walkway. Quite pretty. There's a nice sandy path for horses to walk on the right.

Molly and I demonstrating how the sandy pathway is to be used.

Buckingham Palace! It has quite the gate.

Queen Victoria fountain with riders in red. We weren't sure what their purpose was, but they looked nice.

Changing of the guards with ridiculous hats.

After the guards changed we got our stuff and went to the airport to go home. All in all I had a good time in London. It was really cool to see the sights that are so famous. But I didn't really like London as a city. Everywhere was so busy and just jammed with people. It was a bit too big for my taste. I'd be interested in seeing what other parts of England are like. In the end, I was just really happy to get back to Dublin and the Euro. Sterling is really tough to deal with since everything looks cheap, but really isn't. I've learned that I never want to drive in London, they view the lines on the streets as just decorations. No one drives in the lines and they're all crazy. So that was my experience in London!