Northern Ireland!

After traveling since Wednesday, it sure feels good to be back at the Park Lodge! This past week was filled with so many different sites and cultural experiences I feel its best to give you quick highlights of the weekend.  We headed to Northern Ireland on Wednesday in search for a cultural and political experience that we had not yet encountered. We were warned- "You can talk about anything to the people of Northern Ireland, sex, drugs and music.  But its best not to bring up politics and religion."

Quick background on Northern Ireland:
Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and not the Republic of Ireland.  Ireland was partitioned in the 1920s as a way to ease disagreements between those who wanted to be part of the UK and the southern  counties who wanted to have their own republic.  While this never settled any arguments, The Troubles began to really explode in the 1960s.  At this time the British Parliament was primarily Protestant and there was a large division between the Protestants (Unionists or Loyalists) and the Catholics (Republicans or Nationalists). In 1968, civil rights protests began to ignite.  Catholics were living in poor housing conditions-families of 10 or 12 were in one bedroom apartments without utilities while a single Protestant student may have lived in a nice home.  Parliament allocated housing to Protestants before Catholics even if that meant jumping the queue.  The Troubles escalated throughout the next decades.  Students continued to be educated in schools of either Protestant or Catholic.  Violence between neighbors, British troops and the IRA infiltrated the lives of everyone in Northern Ireland-primarily in Derry and Belfast.  It wasn't until 1996 when Peace Talks began and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 that began the cessation of violence in Northern Ireland.  Most of the people in Northern Ireland would agree that there has been peace for the last 12-14 years.  Yet, you can drive down one side of town covered in British flags, murals of the Royal family and blue and red everywhere. Then, turn the corner and Irish flags, Celtic symbols and Gaelic writing covers the street corners and shops.


Highlights of the Weekend (I might upload more later, but it takes almost 2 hours to just do these few!):

Giant's Causeway...thousands of hexagonal column

We also toured Bushmill's Distillery.  It was started in 1608 before  licences were required to make whiskey. It is the only distillery that has survived since that time. 

The Irish/Catholic side of Derry.  Protestants, remaining loyal to Britain, still call Derry "Londonderry"

This wall separates the Protestant side from the Irish side in Belfast. Similar walls also run between the houses in Belfast.    Recently, the city voted on if the walls should come down.  25% side they wouldn't mind, another quarter said they  would never want them down and the last half said they could maybe come down in the future.

We also toured the Titanic Museum which is built exactly where the Titanic was built.  The ship building industry was a huge economic benefit for Belfast, over 35,000 men were employed to build Her. The museum was phenomenal!  They even had the evening gown which Rose wore during the sinking of the ship in the movie!

We had a great weekend North, but it is so nice to be back at the cottage.  We have an off weekend this coming weekend and I am looking forward to some time around Galway! 

Irish adventures at their very best!

 This weekend was filled with more adventures than can possibly be written about!  On Thursday we headed south to the County Kerry. Co. Kerry is know for its magnificent scenic drives filled with mountains, cliffs and gorgeous overlooks. We toured the 15th century Ross Castle after we arrived at our hostel in Killearney.   Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed in the castle.  The castle sits on a beautiful lake in the basin of two mountains and is  an absolutely astonishing. On Friday, we were able to tour the Victorian Age Muckross House in which the Queen of England had stayed at along with many other Irish scholars. The rest of the day we drove around a scenic "highway" called the Ring of Kerry. The road carves its way through the sides of the mountains and brings you across the entire county of Kerry. It is so narrow that there is an unwritten rule that coaches only travel clockwise around the Ring because it is not wide enough for two buses to pass side by side.  For all you Glacier fans, imagine the Going to the Sun road except a lot more curvy, a few less goats, one lane wide and sheer drop offs into the sea crashing below. At one overlook we stopped for pictures and a few of us decided to scurry up a near mountain for a better picture. We crawled hands and knees to the to and while the prickly bushes were not a pleasant experience-the view from the top was amazing!

Top of the world!

View from the Ring of Kerry

On Saturday night we attended a traditional Irish musical called, Clann Lir. It was an amazing show filled with Irish dancing and  traditional music.  Check out this video from youtube,  it was absolutely amazing! Clann Lir

The most exciting adventures were on Sunday as we ventured to the Cliffs of Moher-the tallest cliffs in all of Europe and the most popular tourist place in Ireland. The cliffs are also made famous as there is a scene from Harry Potter that is filmed on the cliffs. We took a boat out into the ocean to see them from ocean level first.  And it was not a calm day!  We all were holding on for dear life! You couldn't sit on the benches because one wave would sending you sliding across the boat.  Standing was only possibly by holding on to a railing, a friend or usually both!  Appreciate the pictures as it was quite difficult to stand, hold on with one hand, take a picture with another and protect the camera from crashing waves on the boat deck. It was a great ride and even though we were soaked and cold it was worth it!  Afterwards, we went to the top for another view.  The ocean looked so calm from up top-but we were not fooled! It was a beautiful view!  All the adventures of this weekend topped those from last.  I am excited for what next weekend has in store!  We are leaving for Northern Irleand on Wednesday morning and Belfast on Friday.  Hopefully, I will be able to meet up with Courtney for the night!  

Cliffs of Moher

Limerick, Monastic Ruins, The Burren and Glenstal Abbey

As you can tell from this post's title-we had one very busy weekend! On Saturday morning we left for our first overnight weekend excursion to Limerick. Brother Colman,our theology professor and Benedictine monk, was our guide for the weekend.   We headed south around Galway bay to many medieval monastic ruins. The area around Limerick county is filled with monastic ruins aging to the 7th and 8th century.  It was very cool to be able to explore old churches, tombs and even see some human remains... Our adventures then brought us to  The Burren which in Irish can be translated to "rocky place." Now a National Park, the Burren is made of karst limestone which was once the ocean's floor. We were able to hike back to a small oratory and cave that was the site of St. Colman Mac Daugh's hermitage.  The site is a famous Irish pilgrimage site and there is a running well that we all drank from.

7th Century Monastic Ruins

The Burren

Inside the hermitage cave 

Holy well

Karst Limestone

After exploring monastic ruins we wound our way through the country side to a small town called Sixmilebridge.  The gravel roads were so narrow that the bus driver had to stop multiple times to fix the mirrors that were folded inward because of the hedges and trees brushing up against the sides of the coach. After wandering around Sixmilebridge,most of our group found our way into Gilly's Bar. To our surprise, they were hosting a surprise 40th birthday party!  They invited us all to stay and we spent the entire night dancing with the locals-none were under the age of 35. We all agree that it was the best night in Ireland yet!
Sunday morning we drove to  Glenstal Abbey , a Benedictine Monastery.  The Monastery is home to 50 monks and 207 prep school boys. The boys board there for the school year-most are from prominent Irish families. Yet, there are many international students as well. Brother Colman was reluctant to humbly share that the prep school is ranked as the top secondary school in all of Ireland.  We toured around the grounds and   a small underground chapel that holds many religious icons from the early Eastern Orthodox Church. The Benedictine monks lived up to their name and provided us with wonderful hospitality and a delicious grilled salmon lunch! 

Glenstal Abbey

On our way back to Galway, we stopped in a small town outside the monastery to watch the Championship Hurling Match on TV.  Assuming most of you do not know what hurling it is, imagine this: rugby players running around throwing a baseball by passing it to each other on a hockey-like stick. Or as Brother Colman says, "It's like hockey-but requires skill!" The players try to score be either hurling the ball into a soccer goal for 3 points or over the football upright for 1 point. And for all not well versed in Irish sports-this game was like the Superbowl and our hometown, Galway was playing!  We were all extremely shocked at how physical and quick the match was.  Ironically, Galway and Kilkenny tied!  And while it was the championship game, there is no overtime and they play again on September 30th for a rematch.  Hopefully, we will be able to go! Below is a link to the entire hurling match...I would suggest you take a peak! Galway vs. Kilkenny Hurling Match

This week promises to be a busy week with classes and reading assignments, but we head to Kerry next Thursday-Sunday for another excursion. Check back for pictures of the Cliffs of Moher, Ring of Kerry and more!

First Week of Class: Complete

Our first week of classes flew by in Spiddal! We had another beautiful, warm and sunny day yesterday and with only one class I most definitely took advantage of it. My first run in Ireland!  Luckily for me, Galway is a very health conscious town and even their most narrow roads have a path for running or walking.  I ran along  the main road that heads back into Galway that runs right near the Sea. At some points I had to stop to pick the blackberries that are all over right now. Oops! There are many darling cottages and rather nice Sea side homes scattered along the road. And boy are the roads narrow!  Even with the winding, two lane wide roads the cars zip around them nearly 80 km per hour.  Perhaps the best part of this week was being able to meet up with my Laketrail's guide, Krista!  Krista is traveling over Ireland with her parents for the next few weeks and we were able to meet up in Galway tonight. Rory, our hackney driver, drove me to Krista's B&B where we met and walked into the city. It was so exciting to A) See a Laketrailer!  and  B) see them in Ireland! We spent the night in Eyre square which is the main district in Galway. It is filled with cobblestone streets, pubs, authentic Irish food and shops.  We both enjoyed dinner in the upstairs of an adorable restaurant and later had Bulmer's Irish Cider.  It was a blast seeing Krista and being able to navigate through the weaving streets of Galway with another guide :) This weekend we head off to Limerick to explore castles, cathedrals, rocks and ruins. Stay tuned! 

Exploring the streets of Galway

Our First Field Trip!

Yesterday was our first field trip!  After winding our way through small Irish villages, we arrived at Thoor Ballylee.   This was the home of Noble Prize winner and Irish poet, William Butler Yeats. Thoor Ballylee is tower that was built in the 13th century.  A creek flows around the area and Yeats lived there for many years in the early 1900s.  After touring his home, we drove to Coole Park. Now a nature preserve, Yeats visited his friend and the land there  for inspiration for his poetry. The park is over a 1000 acres and is covered by pastures, lakes, cedar forests and walking trails. We were able to hike around as our literature professor would stop and read poetry to us.  We had absolutely gorgeous sunny weather-even needing to take my sweater off once and awhile! The rest of the week is filled with class and then we are off to Limerick for the weekend!
-M

The remaining bridge near the Tower that survived bombing during the Irish civil war. 

Yeats' tower and cottage

Two flights and one long bus ride later..

I ARRIVED IN GALWAY! My flight to Ireland from Chicago landed quite a bit ahead of time-only to stand in customs for nearly 2 hours.  I would love to say the three hour ride from Dublin to Galway was beautiful, as I am sure it was, but luckily I slept the entire time!  Rory, the hackney driver, picked me up for the 20 minute drive to Galway. He pointed out all the hot spots along the way-the very distant Cliffs of Moher, Aran Islands , all the pubs and some of the oldest parts of the city! Galway Bay was gorgeous as the sun was peaking its way through the fog.  Rory and I arrived Park Lodge Hotel  just after two and dropped my off at Cottage 2!  Cottage 2 will be my home for the next few months. I have four roommates: Emily, Colleen, Alyssa and Michelle.  Our Cottage has 3 bedrooms, a cute little kitchen area and living area (see pictures below!). After quick setting my stuff down and changing into course appropriate clothing, we headed off to my first class at 2:30. Talk about a quick turn around! Today's course was Irish History with Dr. Lawrence Marley.While history usually isn't my forte, he promised us that history is indeed a science!  Wish me luck! After class, our cottage made a quick dinner before having orientation with the entire group. Ireland's weather is just as promised-windy, rainy and chilly!  Luckily, the more it rains the green the pastures and lawns become!  All is well here in Galway County-check back in for more (exciting) pictures, stories and ramblings! 

-M

Cottage 2

My room!