Tuesday 24 February 2015

The West of Ireland

Warning: this is long, and it's all words, cause I haven't downloaded pictures yet. Sorry!

So, as you all know, I went on a trip through Ireland last week! We left early Monday morning, got back late Saturday night, and all the days in between were amazing! Obviously, there were some ups and downs, but overall, we saw some incredible things, and I feel so lucky that I am able to experience it all. I'll try my best to get the highlights of each place, and keep it to all the interesting stuff.

Monday then, was the beginning of our journey, taking us to the city of Cahir. The main point of stopping here was the Cahir Castle, which we actually found out was closed due to maintenance. Awesome, right? The first part of our trip and we already were at the mercy of construction. We sulked for about a minute, and then sucked it up and went walking through a trail we found behind the castle, and it was stunning. Walking forwards we lucked out with the sun; on the way back though, the clouds darkened in what seemed like 30 seconds, and then we were soaked in another 30. Crazy Irish weather!

We then went to Cashel, where we found the hostel that I had booked and got that sorted out. It wasn't hard to find, seeing as there's only a couple main streets in the whole city. We then went to explore the Rock of Cashel, which was also under construction - but thank goodness, we still got to go inside! Actually, we first were rebels, and walked all around the outside of the Rock, which I don't think we were supposed to do .... but I'm glad we did, because the views were amazing. Everything was so incredibly green.

On to Tuesday!

Tuesday morning, we caught the bus from Cashel back to Cahir, where we had a break in between buses and went to go eat something. We realized then that it was Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day - and I therefore decided to order pancakes. This place actually had them with maple syrup, which was exciting because how much more Canadian can you get?! I still tried the Irish pancakes though, which is basically a thick crepe with sugar and lemon. I don't know how particularly Irish I found it, but nevertheless, it was good. (I mean, it had sugar on it - of course it was good hehe)

We then went to Limerick, and by the time we got settled in at the next hostel, it was close to 3. Everything in Ireland seems to close at 4:30, so we didn't have long to explore. We all wanted to see King John's Castle however, so that was our choice and by golly, it was the right one. We paid the entrance fee, and then were led to what was basically a museum explaining the history of the castle. I was kind of apprehensive at this point, because while that's great and all, I don't really find history that interesting - I just wanted to see pretty sights. (I do realize how unintelligent that makes me sound :S ). Anyways, we continued on, finished the museum section, and then BAM - we entered the the outside castle grounds, climbed a ton of stairs, and were consequently struck speechless, because it was gorgeous. The Castle is right next to the Shannon River, so when you climb to the top, you can see this massive river and the entire city. It was really, really, stunning. We stayed until they kicked us out for closing.

Progressing to Wednesday.....

Where two exciting things happened:
1) I found the way to the hostel from the bus station! Me! I was so proud.
2) We went to a traditional Irish pub that had eight people sitting around a table with instruments playing Irish music. It was incredibly cool to experience.

Thursday:

We went to the Cliffs of Moher! We booked a tour bus, so it left in the early morning, and stopped off at a bunch of really cool places as well as the cliffs. We went to a castle, a fairy ring, The Burren, the Cliffs, and then even after the Cliffs, we stopped again at this amazing rocky beach. It was a lot to take in, and it was all amazing. I wish I could take mental pictures of everything. The landscape is obviously very different from back home as well, and interestingly enough, it makes me really appreciate and miss BC.

Advancing to Friday!

Friday held our trip to the Aran Islands, which was probably one of my favourite things I've done since I've been here. I thought I'd like the Cliffs more, but the Aran Islands were captivating. Not just because again, it was beautiful, but because the type of lifestyle they have there is so different then what I'm used to. The whole day,  I was thinking about what it would be like to live there. The Aran Islands consist of three islands, and we went to the largest one - Inis Mor. There are 800 people on the entire island; their main resources of income are fishing and tourism; they have 3 churches, 3 schools, 6 pubs (haha), 1 supermarket, 1 ATM, and 1 bank. The bank is open only one day a week for three hours.... !!!
We had the option of renting bikes or going on a bus tour, and while I originally would have rather biked, the weather was kind of frightening, so we opted for the bus. Turns out, that was quite handy, because while the weather did hold out for the most part, we got directly driven to all these amazing places, and learned all the above information I just told you, none of which I would've known if we'd just biked. We got dropped off at the base of this hill, had progressively stunning views while climbing it, and then reached the top and realized it was a cliff! I could've sat and stared at the ocean all day. The water was like the thickest vanilla milkshake you've ever seen, swirling at the base, crashing against walls of rock. The other highlight was the stop right at the Atlantic Ocean. I stood too close to the waves, and ended up soaking my shoes, which made for a dismal walk back home at the end of the day, but hey - I touched the Atlantic Ocean!

And lastly, Saturday.

We basically just explored Galway for a couple hours, and then headed back to Waterford. I've decided Galway was my favourite city out of the four we went to, even though I feel like I saw the least of it. Cahir and Cashel were a bit too small for my liking, and Limerick felt a bit too city-ish for me - the building were higher, the streets were wider, things felt fancier. Galway though was vibrant, and full of life. It's like you could feel the people and the energy float off the streets.

And, well, that's it! We've reached the end! That is my week in a 1200 word nutshell. Thanks for sticking with me :) I'll put some pictures up in a couple of days, hopefully.

Enjoy the sunshine I've been missing back home for me (:

Sunday 15 February 2015

Rag Week

(First - yes, I did change the font. Hopefully this one's a bit easier to read and loads properly)

Well, this week started off crazy. This week is what's known as "Rag Week," here in Waterford. It's basically an excuse for Irish students to go get drunk almost every night of the week and then miss class - all for charity. Rag Week is Monday through Thursday, each day a separate ticket that you have to buy if you want to attend. Each day consists of shows and DJs at the pub on campus, which continues through the evening. If you bought the ticket, you then get cheaper admission to a club downtown, also on that specific night.

A bunch of us international students went on Monday. It was quite strange, going out on a Monday night. Who actually does that?! I woke up feeling disoriented Tuesday morning with the realization I had to go to school. And no, I was not hungover hahaha. Interestingly enough, that first class Tuesday morning, I was only one of five people to show up. All my classes had incredibly low attendance this week - like max seven people. I'm getting kind of frustrated with it actually. It's annoying walking all the way to school for one particular class, be the only one who shows up, have the prof hum and ha about what to do for twenty minutes, and finally eventually decide to cancel it. Don't ask me what I think we should do - I'm a student, I'm always going to want to leave early. You're the prof. Ugh.

Thursday night, I went to this theatre production, which was.... interesting. I'm glad I went to it, even for the sole reason that I can now say I've been to the theatre in Ireland. It was a one man show, so for an hour and a half, we listened to this guy who was portraying a woman who was struck by lightning and consequently dealing with being horrifically disfigured. It was quite dark material, but the way it was presented, it was quite humorous too. It was an interesting and unique depiction of themes and morals that we've all been relentlessly exposed to throughout media, creating quite the thought-provoking environment.  The music was really loud and kind of creepy though, and I felt like I was jumping out of my skin every five minutes. Pretty sure my blood pressure was through the roof the entire time.

Also this week, we officially booked all our hostels and figured out our plans for this next week as best we could - recognizing that things never go quite as planned. Already, there's been some deviation - there was originally five of us setting out, and now there is eight. I would again, as I said in an earlier post, like to assume that this is just because me and Julie are so incredibly charismatic, but I think it has more to do with the fact that we planned everything out, and therefore everyone else has minimal work to do. To be honest, I'm a bit apprehensive about all our personalities shoved together for a week straight. I'll probably need some space at some point, but I've tried to mentally prepare for it. Whatever the case, I'm pretty stoked this is actually happening!

Our plans are to leave tomorrow and first, go to Cahir, which is this little town that has a castle, and is supposed to be cute (the town, not the castle haha). After that, we continue onto Cashel, where we'll see the Rock of Cashel! On Tuesday, we trek to Limerick, where there's multiple things to do, and Wednesday, we'll find our way to Galway and have the day to explore there. Thursday will be the Cliffs of Moher, and Friday, the Aran Islands. Saturday brings the long bus ride home! As a note, I will not be bringing my computer with me for the week, so communication might be minimal!

Two Other Random Factoids:

- We booked bus tickets to go to Dublin for St. Patricks Day! I'm so excited! We were originally thinking about going to Cork, but we talked to a bunch of people for different opinions, and were pretty quickly persuaded to go to Dublin!

- I keep thinking I see people from back home here. Obviously, no one else I know is actually here, and sometimes the resemblance isn't even that close hahaha, but it happens all the time. Maybe all of you have random dopplegangers living in Ireland. Or maybe I just miss you all. I guess it's probably the latter ;)


So this is where I live! My apartment is at the very right of this picture. It's a far cry from home, but it keeps me warm. Oh wait... no it doesn't haha. But I won't complain. Pretty much all the other international students live here too, so it's cool that within a few minutes, we can all hang out.




Me and Julie went out for full Irish breakfast! Highlights were the rashers, which they call bacon, but it's really more like ham; grilled tomato; and white pudding - which tastes like sausage with sunflower seeds.
The white pudding was interesting, but overall, it was really good.






This is a picture from last week at Dunmore East. I don't know how I forgot to include it haha. My toes aren't pointed though, and of course I got my balance on the first try .... ! ;)






Sunday 8 February 2015

Coffee & Cliffs

Monday: school.
Tuesday: school.
Wednesday: school; city centre (bagels, tea, police); movie (Kingsman)
Thursday: school; pub with live Irish music
Friday: school; city centre (coffee, scarves)
Saturday: Dunmore East
Sunday: yet to be determined.....

BAM. Everything from this week in a nutshell. Done.

Haha, just kidding. I guess I can expand a little bit....

Wednesday encompassed the most delicious bagel of my life (sorry Tims), a really cute cup of tea, and then I went and registered with the immigration at the police station. I had until February 6th to stay in Ireland before needing to get a visa, and preferably, I would've registered in the first two weeks of being here. However, I had some problems that deterred me from doing it earlier, and so ended up cutting it pretty close, only having two days before I wasn't legally supposed to be living in Ireland anymore! My goal here is not to get kicked out of the country, so I was quite relieved that everything finally worked itself out haha.

The live Irish music was amazing. It made me sort of melancholy, stinging the hole in my heart left from leaving Irish dance, but nevertheless, it was cool to hear it live, six feet in front of me. A couple Irish girls were dancing (regularly haha), and dragged me and a couple friends out with them, so that was pretty cool too. I also learned that drunk Irish guys (well, a couple of them anyways) really are crazy.

Me & Julie have decided to experiment and go to different coffee shops when we're in city centre, so we found this cute place called O'Briens (I love how Irish it sounds hehe), and I had one of the best chai latte's everrrr. Mmmm. And I bought another scarf while we were there. I have a problem. My suitcase coming home is just going to be filled with scarves hahaha.

On Saturday, I was debating on doing an 8km race with my friends Carlos and Anna - but then Carlos sprained his ankle, and since he was the main motivator in our group, me and Anna had a couple days of contemplation about whether or not we were going to do it. We finally decided to register, then realized we actually missed the registration date. It was kind of disappointing, but maybe for the best, since the Irish weather has infiltrated all our lungs and gifted us all with colds. So, instead of running, we went to Dunmore East, which is this little coastal town about 30 minutes away from Waterford. It was similar to Tramore, which we went to two weeks ago, but this was less beach and more cliffs. It was beautiful, though slightly scary, because my eyes have a tendency to be constantly watering in this wind, so I feel like I'm climbing over rocks half blind with a constant stream of tears leaking out hahaha. We did find a cafe there though, selling Tim Hortons coffee!! Me and Julie freaked out, and everyone else was just really confused. All in all, it was wonderful, but I'm definitely a beach person over a cliff and rocks person haha.

This next week looks towards more classes, and locking in our plans for the week after, which we have off school and are consequently going traveling! We're planning to do a six day trip through the west part of Ireland, hitting a whole bunch of castles, a bunch of hostels, and the famed Cliffs of Moher! I'm a bit nervous, thinking about living out of a backpack for almost a week, and being continuously on the go, but I'm also excited - I've never stayed in a hostel, or done this type of traveling. The people I'll be going with are awesome too. It'll be another thing to check off the bucket list! (:

Well, I think that's it! Good luck to all my friends in school back home right now going through midterms! - don't study too hard ;)



Everyone who came with us to Dunmore East, in a 'cave selfie' haha. I've been a part of more selfies in the last month, then in my entire life.....





Raul, Me, Julie, & Bert. We hiked up to this point a bit, so it was a really nice view from the edge.






This picture is pointless, except to further the fact that I'm obsessed with tea. Tea and scarves, apparently....

Sunday 1 February 2015

Macarons & Cork

I'VE BEEN HERE A MONTH.

WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!

Have I even learned anything in this adventure thus far?

Well, sure. That time goes crazy fast, that's what I've learned. I keep comparing this to the five weeks I spent in Quebec, because that's the only other thing that I've done that remotely compares to this. Except at this point, I'd already be thinking about going home - and here, I have another four months. FOUR MONTHS. Which seems like an exceptionally long time at this point, especially because while I'm not homesick, I am at the point where the initial shock of everything is finally starting to dim, and I miss everyone at home. But alas.

Nothing too interesting to report from school. Thus far, we've talked about perceptions, first impressions, the digestive system, and most interestingly, hamstring tears. I'm gonna nerd out on you guys for a sec though, cause I think this is cool! - Did you know that the location of a hamstring tear has a prominent influence on how long it takes you to recover? (If you've taken KPE 371, feel free to skip this paragraph haha). Basically, if it's closer to the inside of your leg (a proximal free tendon injury) then it takes much longer to heal, compared to if it's an intramuscular tendon injury tear (usually adjacent to the biceps femoris) - YET, for the most part, all hamstring tears are treated the same way...... interesting, no? How's that for expanding your intellectual prowess? I think we can say this blog now officially qualifies as educational material.

This week overall otherwise, was pretty chill. Stayed home. Ate popcorn. Drank tea. Watched the entire first season of Super Fun Night, a show starring Rebel Wilson that Julie introduced me too. (Apparently, I don't watch enough TV, youtube videos, or movies - I know nothing about anything media). Drank more tea. And I also did laundry. Which was actually an interesting endeavour, because I no longer know the lovely luxury of having a washer and dryer at home - and the apartment makes you pay a freaking arm and leg (or to be more precise, 8 euro) to use theirs. So me and Julie thought we'd try and outsmart these money sucking machines, and bought hand washing soap instead. We dared to conquer the dirt in our sinks - and then reverently prayed that our clothes would actually dry in this frigid Ireland air - and they did! ..... in about a week. 

Anything more exciting then laundry to tell you about? Well, no, not really. Here's the only other couple of remotely interesting details:

- Since the karate club is a no-go, I went and asked about the kickboxing club they have. Well, instead of finding a time to meet, I just got sad eyes looking at me saying they don't think the club is running this year at all. Well then.....

- We finally had to go buy more peanut butter since I devoured mine about two weeks ago, and have been eating Julie's since then (sorry Julie) and finished that too.... we bought the american stuff, and my report: it's weird. Next on the list will be irish peanut butter haha.

- I successfully used the Irish ATM with my new Irish bank card. I also finally, finally found a hole puncher and stapler that I can use in the school's library! All my sheets have just been floating around in my backpack and it was driving me mad. These things that I take for granted at home, feel like the biggest accomplishments here. When I had all that paper stapled up and in my notebook, the way I felt could've been synonymous to climbing mount everest! (Alright, maybe that's not quite the same, but the idea is there.)

- A couple of us girls walked to city centre on Friday afternoon, and went to "Lily O'Brien's Chocolate Cafe." It had been beckoning for a while, and is even on trip advisor for things to do in Waterford! Yes, I googled things to do in Waterford. They're known for their hot chocolate, so even though I don't typically like hot chocolate, I got it anyway. It was the best decision of the entire day, because ohmygoodness, it was absolutely delicious. And I also had my first macaron! No, not macaroon - macaron - they're very different. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but I was quite excited just to eat it hahahaha. (Obviously - it's in my title post haha).

- We went to this talent show thing being put on by the university, and as my friend said, it was more like a #nobodyaroundheregottalent talent show. But, we can't critique too much - I commend their brave souls for getting up and performing. Or perhaps they didn't have to be brave - pretty sure everyone was on their sixth beer before the night even started hahaha

- That above was my first hashtag. And really, it wasn't even mine, cause I was quoting it. #myownofficialfirsthashtag #doesthatcount? #canyouevenincludequestionmarks?

On that note, that was the week. On the weekend, most particularly, on Saturday.....

WE WENT TO CORK! (For those of you who don't know what Cork is, it's the second largest city in Ireland, Dublin being the first).

Six of us were up and walking to the bus station before the sun was even up to start the day's adventure. It was a two hour bus ride into Cork, and then another half hour to THE BLARNEY CASTLE. I was freaking out the entire second bus, cause I was so excited. Pretty sure I was quite the entertainment for all my friends. We spent two/three hours exploring, and it was amazing. We all kissed the blarney stone (Julie was anxious about all the germs, but we got her to do it anyway hehe), went through rock caves, took a million and a half pictures, and just had a really, really, good day. Back in Cork, we went through a free art gallery, got food at the English Market, wandered the streets, and then got more food at a pub. You can never have enough food. I also tried a beer called Murphy's, which is an Irish stout beer that is actually made, and is hard-pressed to find anywhere else, in Cork. It's similar to Guinness, but not as bitter - which is probably why I actually kind of liked it (surprise!).

Pictures from the day are in the post below :)

P.S - Happy birthday to Auntie Donna and Laura! Miss you guys, hope you both had phenomenal days!!

P.P.S - I got convinced to get Instagram. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but nevertheless, if I can remember I have it, I'll occasionally post pictures. (Do you need my username to see what I post? I don't know how this works. In any case, it's brit64.e) They're also trying to convince me to get twitter and ... I can't even remember what else.... but no. Just no. 

Have a wonderful upcoming week everyone :)

Just Another Picture Post Ya'll

Hi friends,
A written post will be coming very shortly, but here's a visual prelude as to what's to come! :)

Shout out to Carlos & Julie for about half of these pictures as well!


Approaching the Blarney Castle.

Hubert, Me, Julie, Carlos, in the caves.

I didn't get the scary face memo :/

A bit blurry, but here's me & Julie in one of the cove things inside the castle.

I'm kissing the blarney stone!!!!

The full group: Ernany, Hubert, Carlos, Julie, Me, Evelyn

Hubert had some balance problems. Only Evelyn was concerned haha

My first macaron!

I can't believe we were here.

Aren't I cute? ;) hehe

.....!

I felt so small.

The guys think the hidden car in this picture is hilarious.

So. much. green. I love it.

The castle.

I'm running out of things to say.

Twas a magical place.