Halloween in Dublin

Background information. Ireland is the birthplace to our beloved candy consuming holiday of Halloween. It was originally a celebration of harvest as well as the beginning of the new season! So any fear of not being able to celebrate this holiday while studying abroad in Ireland can be put aside because it is huge here!

So this year I opted to venture to Dublin, mainly because I thought there was a Halloween parade, but it turns out that there isn't. No worries though, there were plenty of adventures that made up for the internet's lies!

We need to take it back a couple of steps to preparing for this fabulous holiday. So about a week before Halloween we, the 5 of us who went to Dublin, realized that we needed costumes, but could not figure out what 5 girls could be... We, being girls, decided to head out on a shopping spree to find something amazing and amazing we did, we found adult sized onsies and what makes a better Halloween costume than quintuplet babies?!?!?! So it was a must buy, not only was it super cute, it was super warm which worked in our favor when we had to walk around in the rain!!

Sexy Babies! 

                                              

So Saturday came around and we woke up bright and early as usual! I thought that I woke up a little earlier than I really did. It was 7:15 when I started to heat up my pan to cook eggs when my roommate asked what I was doing and I said, "Making breakfast, what are you doing?" She responded, "Okay, but we are leaving in 5 minutes." I took a second look at the clock, threw the pan in the sick, brushed my teeth and took a piece of toast for the road!

Needless to say, I did not make us late, we got onto the bus to make our 4 hour long journey to the lovely city of Dublin! Once we got in the city we took the scenic route, stopping to do a little window shopping and street performer watching before heading to our hostel. 

Our Room- 3-0-3

We finally made it to our hostel, a little before check-in time, so we had to wait, but it was okay, because we had to eat lunch at some point! After a quick bite, we went back and got our key to the room. I had really good vibes about the room since the number was 303, repin' the home zip code, but it turns out that the number carries no luck. We walk down these creepy long hallways, which eventually lead us to the chapel, which we walk through to the back only to discover that our room is in the furthest corn of this hostel-chapel. Just excited to see a bed, we quickly open the door to find an older gentleman, naked (thankfully under his covers, but clearly naked) lying in his bed sleeping. He wakes up, greets us by saying, and I quote, "Hi, this room is haunted." We were like umm, get us out of here, but we stayed anyways, because it is all about the adventure. As we settled in he continued to talk to us while lying there naked about how he is a spiritual healer  and that he would ward off the evil spirits for us. He also said that he had stayed in another hostel where this girl's credit cards were stolen, and although he was the only person in the room when it happened, he knew that it was her really good friend, who obviously was not a really good friend. So we made sure to grab our stuff to leave at the front desk when we left the room.

At the Guinness Factory

Since we were only going to be in Dublin for a day and a half or so, we figured that we better start seeing the town and what better way to do that then visit the Guinness Factory! After figuring out that the bus driver was a jerk and didn't inform us that we missed our stop, we got off and backtracked to the storehouse. I guess it ended up being okay because we got to see a whole different side to the factory. So we finally made it in, paid our 9 euro and headed off on our self-guided tour. It was basically a Guinness museum, which was not what I expected, I expected to see them actually making the Guinness, but in the end, it was actually pretty interesting to see the history and whatnot. It was unfortunate that we got there so late, because we did not have time to actually learn to pour our own Guinness, but no fear we did get a pint at the Galaxy bar which overlooked all of Dublin. If there is anything you must do in Dublin, it is to go here!!

The Bouncer and I with his mustache on!

We then headed back towards our hostel, because everything closes rather early, nothing new to the Irish culture. It was close to dinner time, so we stopped at the pub across from the hostel to have a bite. Although the lady did not understand really anything we asked for, the food was overall satisfying. After finishing, we popped back over to our hostel and thankfully discovered that our old man roommate was not in the room. Just as we all laid down to take a nap, a younger gentleman walked in our room and made us all feel a little bit more at ease. We became completely comfortable when he started talking to us with his Australian accent! He began to tell us about the old naked guy that was staying in our room. Apparently he has lived in the hostel for the past 4 months and basically lives off of the government. We later discovered why... he is just sooo stupid and cannot even back up his weird beliefs...  Anywho, our Aussie roomie told us that he was going to head out with some other American's he had met the night prior to us arriving and that we were welcome to join, so of course we said yes. We did our makeup and hair and headed out. As soon as we got to the pub, the bouncer was like, why are you not dressed up, and we said that we were waiting to Halloween and he said no one will be dressed up since they have to go to work Monday, so we ran back to the hostel (conveniently located across the street), slapped on our onsies and headed back to the pub! 

The man with our onesie on

From here came a fabulous night out on the town! We had our first and only pint of the night across the street from the hostel! There were tons of people dressed up, we were stopped every two seconds to be asked what we were, we got stuck in the pouring rain, we walked to Temple Bar, were called sexy babies, walked back towards our hostel, saw a major 10 minute long cat fight (found chunks of hair in the same area the next day), found a man wearing the same outfit that we were and then called it a night. Although it was not super exciting, it was soo much fun! 

The rest of the trip was just shy of the bullseye. We made it to soo many place, but were just not able to fully experience where we were. We headed out early Sunday morning, starting at St. Patrick's Cathedral, only to get there 15 minutes past visiting hours. We walked to the Dublin castle to discover that you can only take a tour if you pay for it and we could not even find where you would pay. We went to Trinity College and could not find the library, apparently you can trace your genealogy or something there... We were on a mission to find Jen a jacket, failure. I did find a watch and a cute top and plenty of souvenirs!

Overall, I liked Dublin, but was glad to go home to my own room where there was not a creepy naked man sleeping! If you have the chance to go to Dublin, most definitely do go, just allow yourself to have enough time!! 

Lessons learned:

*Just because it says it is a youth hostel, does not mean that it is

*You get what you pay for

*If you can avoid going on a Sunday somewhere and have longer than 2 days to go, take the extra time!

Next I am off to Munich for what else than more adventures, but until then....Slàinte!

The Cliffs of Moher and Moher and Moher

The Cliffs

Oh boy, never is a trip complete without an unexpected adventure, and might I say that this has been the most epic adventure so far...

Okay, so about a week prior to our trip, we went to the bus station to find out how we could get to the Cliffs of Moher. The lady handed me two time tables for the two buses that connected to get us to the the cliffs. I said okay, looked them over and planned our trip out, or so I thought...

Saturday morning comes bright and early, 6am to be exact. I make breakfast, brush my teeth, and get the gang together to head to the bus station. A long, cold, 30 min. walk later, we reach the bus station, buy our tickets and get on the bus for the long, cold, 4 hour bus ride to the cliffs.

O'Brien's Castle

We get to the cliffs and since we are obviously extremely exhausted from all that hard work it took to get there, we opted to take a nice long lunch break prior to setting out on our journey. Per usual I had some cheese and some ham placed between bread and heated on a grill, since that seems to be the only thing that they serve here!

Don't Do It!

After lunch, we walked off to begin our picture taking, and picture taking we did! I think I got to 120 or so before my camera died =(, but lets face the facts, 119/120 were pretty much the same thing, so I cannot complain too much!

We first walked towards O'Brien's Castle, a tiny little tower that gives you no greater view than the steps in front of it, but since we didn't know that, we paid the 2 euro each to walk to the top to take some more pictures! Might I say, we were one lucky group of girls, because it was as clear as clear could be with not a drop of rain in sight! It was amazing how far you cold see out into the ocean!

Anywho, we were done taking pictures of the cliffs, we wanted to take pictures from the cliffs, so we hiked down and up to the other side where the cliffs actually are and proceeded pasted the "Please Do Not Go Beyond This Point" sign. I mean everyone does it, it is just used more as a precaution to warn people that you could slip and die, luckily we all survived!

"Shep" The 3-Legged Dog

Since we did not think that the bus came until 6:10pm, we decided to walk and walk and walk and walk until we just couldn't walk no more, or at least until we decided that it was pretty repetitive and that we needed some time to shop in the gift shop prior to our departure. Along the walk, once it got to a point where the path began to diminish, we came across a 3-legged dog that guided us further and further towards to end of the cliffs. We named him Shep. He guided us back to the same point that we met him at where he then picked up the next group of people who wanted to continue down the unbeaten path. 

So after like 3 hours, we decided to head back and do what everyone must do, eat again! Do not get the ice cream, totally not like ice cream back home!! Since it was only like 4:30, we sat around and chatted before we saw they were closing down, so we ran downstairs to the gift shop, made a quick purchase and then sat around waiting for the bus to come at 6:10. 

It got to be 5:50, so we moved towards the door. 6:00, we walked out to make sure we could actually see where the buses pick up at. 6:10, we walked to the bus stop. 6:20, we ran inside to see why the bus wasn't there since the cliffs closed at 6:30. 6:21 we discover the last bus picked up at 1:30. Shit, so they were extremely nice and called a taxi for us. In order for us to make the last connection to Cork, we had to drive to the next town of Ennis which was about 45 minutes away. Tony, the taxi driver, got to us around 6:50 and our bus left at 7:20 so we had roughly 30 minutes, otherwise we were sleeping in a sketch bus station with who knows what!

My absolute Favorite Picture... The Irish Countryside

So we hop in the taxi, buckle up and start flying like a bat out of hell! I was right up front with Tony cussing up a storm at the idiots in front of us that would not slow down so we could pass. We made it to the bus station at 7:19, and thank god that bus was late, otherwise we would have been shit out of luck! 

In the middle of trying to figure out if we just missed the bus or if it was late, I some how left my awesome t-shirt that I bought in Tony's taxi. Luckily he thought that us not catching a bus was bloody crazy, so he gave me a receipt and his business card so that way I could have someone to back me up when I went to talk to the bus station and try get a refund for having to pay for a taxi when their time table was wrong.  So I called him up on the bus and told him that I left my stuff and he told me that it would be no problem and that he would mail it to me... He still has not mailed me it, but I still have faith, because he was a really nice guy!! 

Have to get the Roommate Picture

So we hopped on the bus for our long 4 hour bus ride to Cork. So frustrated and tired, I power walked as fast as I could up that damn hill and straight into my bed. After a good long night sleep, I woke up and looked over the bus time tables to make sure that it as not my fault for misreading them, only to discover that it was. A weird little number 9 at the top of the schedule denoted that the route we were planning on taking back only ran from May to Sept. 

Moral of the story, read your time tables throughly so you do not have to spend an extra 65 euro on a taxi that may, or may not get you to your connection home! 

So although it was an adventure, it was well worth seeing the Cliffs of Moher, for they are one beautiful sight to see! If ever in Ireland, I would highly recommend them and cross my fingers that you make your connecting bus home!

Until my next adventure....Slàinte!

Thursday night adventures!!

Okay, so this weekend we figured that we should probably stop being lame and actually hit the town since we have not been out since the third weekend. So we get all dolled up and head to city center, the place to be on Thursday nights! We really wanted to go to this club Gorby's because last time we went we got in free and got a free shot, but when we got there, the line was around the corner! I would say lets try our good looks on the bouncer, but American girls look like they are Eskimos going to the beach in comparison to Irish girls. It is literally 30 degrees and they are wearing the shortest skirts, highest heels and lowest cut tops ever, so me and my tights were not about to get to the front of the line any time fast! 

All the Ladies

Anywho we decided to walk further down Oliver Plunkett Street to see if we could find better, warmer adventures. So literally 10 steps later a creepy old man wearing clown makeup approaches the 5 us and our first instinct is to run, but then he asks if we could prove that we were 20 and if we wanted free passes into this club called the Society. We said sure, took the tickets and ran away. As some of the ladies got money from the ATM, we decided that we would try this club, it was free admission, so what harm could it be, plus if it failed our standards, we could always go to An Brog, the usual spot we go to on Oliver Plunkett. We were able to get right in since we were females, definitely a plus in the clubbing world! We walked in only to be approached by a lady giving out tickets for 3 free drinks each, baller!! Once inside, we found out it was a circus theme, hence the crazy looking clown guy outside. We decided that we were probably going to need to use some of those free drink coupons right off to get the party started, so we headed to the bar only to be approached by promoters of West Coast wine coolers... yeah add another free drink to the tab! 

The Fencers and Ninja

After a couple shots and a wine cooler, we hit the dance floor to get our boogie on! Wow, there are some crazy cats out there. One of my roommates battled with a guy in a ninja suit, another guy used some paper to "fan" all of us off, two other guys tried to be cool and dance with each other, but didn't work with us, and to top it off, there were two lovely people fencing in the middle of the club, I mean I guess some people might think of that as dancing?! 

Recap: Free admission, 4 free drinks and a night full of memories with the girls... an Epic Thursday out on the town in Cork! 

Cashel and the Rock

WARNING: This post is more about the pictures because I kinda faded away during the history lesson...

The Rock of Cashel from afar 

So this past weekend I journeyed to the town of Cashel, the host to the Rock of Cashel, a rather famous and visited sight. I went with the UCC's Chaplaincy, which ended up not being the best idea. Although they were very nice people, it felt more like I was on an awful field trip. We had a really nice tour guide that took the time to explain all about the Rock of Cashel and the two Abbeys that we visited, but I really just wanted to take pictures! The best part was that we only had to pay 5 euro for the bus there and back and it was private, so it was only UCC students. 

Inside a building at the Rock

Once we actually got to Cashel, we walked around the rock which hosts multiple building where high authority figures use to live back in the day! There were multiple headstones and crosses, since it is a religious sight. It was really cool how they recently discovered part of the original paint and are attempting to preserve it for future generations to see. 

The Countryside

Besides the fact that it was like a field trip, the Rock of Cashel is definitely worth the 2 hour bus ride there and 2 hour bus ride back. I got some quality sleeping in, so the ride did not seem that long, but when I was awake I got to see the gorgeous countryside for the first time with the beautiful Irish rolling green hills and pastures filled with cows! 

Hore Abbey

After the rock, we ventured down to Hore Abbey. Not gonna lie, I kinda dazed off at this time because i was STARVING, so I am not quit sure what went on here, but I got some pictures as shown above.

The front courtyard area

After Hore Abbey, we got some food, so I was a little bit better off and able to pay a little more attention. Following lunch, we went to Holy Cross Abbey. Now this place was mainly a huge attraction because there was a wedding going on, but I did listen to the lady talk as well and she said that monks lived here and that they had to wake up at like 2am, sometimes earlier, to start there day and would be in bed by 6pm. They slept in their clothes on straw beds. They didnt eat their first meal of the day, supper, until like 12pm, so 10 hours after they woke up. There are no longer any monks that live here because there was not enough interest in maintaining it. They now use the Abbey for weddings, baptisms, etc. The lead singer of the Cranberries was married here... apparently a huge claim to fame for little old Holy Cross Abbey lol

The Bride and Groom! 

So although it might not have been fun listening to someone talk all day, it was nice to see another part of Ireland and adventure away from Cork City, because once you have been here for about 2 weeks, you are ready to start seeing more, which I will continue to do. This weekend i am heading to the Cliffs of Moher, so look for a post about that next week, but until then.... Slàinte!

1 month down...

Wow, today marks my first month in Cork! I cannot even believe how fast it has gone by. I feel like every day I am here I find something new, like Monday we went to this new shopping center and I discovered this delightful little pond about 5 minutes behind our apartments that I would have never known existed unless we decided to head off on a new adventure. I also learn knew things everyday such as students get a student price on the bus... I think I might be using that a little more often when getting groceries.

Besides the little things, nothing big and exciting has happened. I am ready to start my travels outside of Cork, because once you have been here a week, you have seen all there is to see. This weekend we are going to see the Rock of Cashel which is this awesome church (pictures to come) and then next weekend we are off to the Cliffs of Moher and will cap the month of October off with Halloween celebrations in Dublin. Fun fact, Halloween originated in Ireland as a holiday to celebrate the end of the summer and harvest as well as ward off some sort of demons, hence the dressing up in costumes! There is suppose to be a big parade and stuff, so again, plenty of more pictures to come for the month of October.

In November I  have trips planned to Munich as well as Paris and potential plans to go to either Barcelona or Milan, but we will see where my finances are by the end of that month! I might also make it to the Giants Causeway which are these awesome rock formations located in northern Ireland...

For those of you who are worried about my studies, do not be. While my roommates were in London this past weekend, I wrote one of my many essays and have intentions of finishing another one this coming weekend. The day trips are fabulous, because it still allows for 2 days of homework!

As of now I am definitely ready for my package from home! The food is nothing to brag about and the speed of life is way too slow for me here and that is saying a lot when I myself am such a nonchalant type of person! Oh man, one final complaint, the inability to pronounce words here is sooo annoying!
For example:
                    We say Ireland........ they say Island
                    We say Resources... they say Rehorses
                    We say Thursday..... they say Tursday

Anywho, I think this is all I have for now, but stay tuned, I am sure there will be more soon, but until then...Slàinte! 

The Garda

Okay, so since we are studying here for more than 90 days (which really I am not, but I said I was staying for 3 months at the airport, otherwise I would not have had to do this whole situation) you have to register with the police to see if they will grant you permission to remain within the country. This is not a privilege, it is a right, therefore they take it extremely seriously!

So, we start our journey to the Garda (their police) last Friday. We leave around 1:50ish and head on our way to a part of town that we had yet to travel through. We stop at a convenience store and make sure we headed in the right direction, only to find out that if we walked like 5 feet past the corner, we would have seen the building we need to go to. Anywho, we get there at 2:20pm, wait in the line for roughly10 minutes and then the lady behind the counter sticks her head out to tells us to leave because we are wasting our time standing in line because they will not make it to us by 4:00pm, when they close, ugh! So we leave and make the long journey up the hill home!

We head back out at 9:00am on Monday morning, since the receptionist told us they open at 9:45am ( it really is 9:30), hoping to be the first people in line. When we got there, it was wrapped further around the little circular room you must wait in! So we sit down and start talking. The first hour went by fast. We tried figuring out how to use our cellphones the second hour, so that was entertaining, but when it came to the 3rd hour, we were very impatient. Turns out that Ireland, and I think the rest of Europe, have to take their lunch break all at the same time. So when we were only 3 people back from getting our paperwork done, they closed shop for their 2 hour lunch, so inefficient!!

So we took shifts to go grab food from across the street, played with the cutest baby ever who had a laugh that sounded like she was hiccuping, and slammed a solid game of War before they returned from their break. Roughly 30 minutes later, we get up to the desk and get our paperwork going. Now I must say now that I am extremely happy that we get reimbursed for this 150 euro process because if not, I would be strangling the guy at the airport!!  So apparently the guy at the airport, although extremely nice and actually has family that lives in Legacy Ridge (a subdivision like 10 minutes away from my house), does not know his days. If he would have wrote 1/1/2011 instead of 1/1/2010 and stamped 15 Sept 2011 instead of 15 Aug 2011, I would have been able to stay in the country without waiting in line, nor paying the fee.

Summary:

2 days, 8 hours and 150 euros later, I am officially a-okay to stay in Ireland until the end of the semester!!

Gotta Love the Irish.... Slàinte! 

My week of Free!!

First and foremost, we have to start with a side note.... Potatoes come with everything. I don't eat potato wedges with my pizza back home, but I do here. I don't have two options for fries, regular or curly, at McDonald's back home, but I do here. Lastly, I don't go to a street fair and see potatoes available at every stand back home, but I do here!! I just cannot believe how many potatoes they have here and although I LOVE potatoes, I am sick of seeing them everywhere!! Unfortunately I did not get any free potatoes, but they are Ireland!

Anywho... I finally made it to the gym this week, not like i haven't been working out everyday by walking across Ireland, but I figured maybe I should actually do a little more to work off all these damn potatoes I am eating lol! So like I said it has been a week of free and the gym was no exception. It was a free show of short-shorts and man boobs. Now in the states we have short-shorts for women, but no, the men wear the shortest shorts EVER here. There is a problem when the men's shorts are shorter than mine! Also, the Mardyke (the name of the gym) has this lovely women's gym that overlooks the pool, where I got my free view of the biggest man boobs ever. I was like damn, when you have bigger boobs then me, we might have an issue lol!! Finally, they have free lockers which just rocked all my roommates socks right off, so now I can just head to the gym right after class without having to hike home first to drop my stuff off!!

Then Wednesday the cast of the musical FAME came to our campus to promote themselves which was awesome. It was like a free 20 min. show, which I recorded but it wont upload, so you have to check it out on facebook!! We might go see the actual thing down at the cork opera house, but we will see what this coming week brings!!

Friday came around and we head out for a night on the town which ended up costing me a whopping 3 euro!! We went to this pub that seems to be popular with the college kids.. on Thursday nights.... so it was a little older crowd when we went, but it was totally worth it because we got our 3 euro pint of cider and watched a free live concert... It was not too shabby to listen to either! We then left to find this more mainstream music that we kept hearing. It ended up being a disco right above the pub where apparently it is free for UCC students to get in on Friday nights. Once we were inside we found out quickly why it was free, for we were 4 of the 6 people on the dance floor. Thankfully we got a free shot in addition to our free admission and within an hour the place was hoping and we danced the night away!! In addition to free admission and a free shot I got some fantastic free people watching in such as these two crazy Asian girls that were dancing all up on each other, these middle eastern men that thought they could dance, but really couldn't, in addition to the typical skanky girls and desperate men that are at every dance club back in America!!

To top off my week, I finally got my phone! It ended up only being 29 euro and then every time I top up 10 euro or more, I get double that amount, so for 10 euro, I really get 20 euro!! But the best part is that i got a 20 euro top up for FREE, so I don't think that I will need to invest any more than my initial 39 euro!!

Well, that has been my week... I shall be back again soon, but as usual until then... Slàinte!