Emily in Ireland!

munich

2008-07-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

Munich was cool. I'm starting to get to a point, though, where I'm getting tired of traveling, I think. It will be nice to sit down on my couch and watch tv (preferably an ANTM marathon), but I know that I'm not ever going to get a free RailEurope pass ever again, so until Sunday I am going to just keep going.

But, anyway, Munich...
The first night I got there I was really tired, so I just hung out at the bar at the hostel and met these 2 really nice girls from Gothenburg, and we decided to go on the free bike tour the next day. So, at 10 am, we met up with a big group of tourists in the city center and collected our bikes for the tour. Apparently Lenny, the guy who ran the tour, used to work for Mike's Bike Tour, which is a famous tour group. Now, though, he runs free bike tours and it was so good! We got to ride around the city on these really sweet old bikes, the kind that only stop by back-pedaling, instead of walking around in the heat. I was slightly worried about the safety of the pedestrians and drivers of Munich, due to the fact that I had not sat on a bike in years, but after wobbling around the parking lot a bit, I got much better.

We rode around the city, stopping at main buildings and the college aged guy who ran the tour told us all about the history of each place, along with super lame jokes that I'm sure he has been repeating twice a day for a year or so. He was cool, though, and we had a really good time.

We stopped at many of the squares and buildings that were significant in WWII and were involved with the whole Hitler ordeal, but it was nice because he was respectful of the people in Munich who don't like hearing about all the events that went down, so when he told us certain stories about Hitler, we would pull into a less-trafficed area. But we saw the square he marched through, and we saw the location of the famous Beer Hall Putsh.
We later stopped by the square that had the huge mustard colored church (left), which was build to celebrate the birth of a baby boy from some famous king or something (the problem with tours is that if you tune out, then you don't know what anything is), and the government building next to it, or maybe it was a library? City hall? Memorial?(right) . I also learned what all the statues meant, but immediately forgot. Perhaps I should start writing this stuff down earlier.

Our next stop was the Hofbräuhaus (left), one of the most famous beer halls in Munich. We went to it 2 days later (the 3 guys from NY who I had met in Florence also came to Munich, as well as the 2 Swedish girls I met), and it was so cool! The waiters wore traditional old school German attire, and there was a band playing like polka music or something, and we were served these massive mugs of beer (1 liter each). I had to share one with the girl next to me, because 1 liter of beer is whoa huge. We also shared German sausages and sauerkraut, so I felt somewhere between whoa German and whoa touristy.

But, back to the tour. We rode through the Englischer Garten (designed and founded by and American, not and Englishman, but somehow the name stuck otherwise), which was a garden that I'd love to be able to go back through if I ever was in Munich again. On the tour we stopped at another famous beer garden, which was centered around a large Chinese tower (left). With 7,000 seats, it is the 2nd largest beer garden in Munich. I bought a half liter of wheat beer mixed with lemonade, and a giant German pretzel which I ended up giving most of it away, due to its massive size (above right is a picture of me and Amanda, one of the girls from Gothenburg).

The last stop on our tour was to watch these hardcore surfers on the Eisbach, a small man made river. River surfing is intense, and apparently if they fall wrong, they smash into the concrete below the wave. But we stayed and watched them for a while, and no one was injured so I guess they know what they are doing.

The next day, me and the NY boys and the Sweden girls went to the Dachau concentration camp memorial. The Dachau was the first concentration camp to open in Germany in 1933 and was a prototype for other German camps. In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau of whom two-thirds were political prisoners and nearly one-third were Jews. 25,613 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp. We went there with a tour guide, which was both good and bad. She knew a lot about the history of Dachau, but we went a lot faster than I would have liked, and we barely got to see everything.
I took a few pictures, but then I kind of stopped half way through because the whole place was so sad and I didn't want to take pictures of the crematoriums and gas chambers. I did though, take a picture of the memorial statue (above right), as well as the fence around the camp (left). I went to the Holocaust museum in DC, but it was completely different to go to an actual camp, with all the barracks and jail cells and barbed wire fences. I was glad that I went, especially since I had taken a class about the history of Anti-Semitism back in Ireland, but I don't think I can go to another one again.

In all, I loved Munich. It was such a nice city, but I was only there for 2 full days, and I really needed more time in order to see everything. Therefore, it is on my list of places to go back to.

siena and florence part 2

2008-06-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

I found the picture of the flier! Haha here it is... see left. Paha. Man that is so funny. Ok so Siena. I woke up that morning, very tired I might add because I had stayed up until 4 am being Dj EG, and hopped on a bus to visit Veronika, one of my roommates in Cork who lives in Siena. 1 hour later, I was in one of the prettiest little cities ever, also frequented by several hundred more tourists, but not as bad as Florence. It was so nice to see a familiar face! Veronika showed me all around the city, so I don't really remember the names of everything because she told me them in passing, but I loved the little city! Apparently, I was going to miss one of the biggest events of Siena by a few days. On July 2nd is The Palio di Siena, which is this huge horse race where the different horses and riders represent the 17 different societies-city wards of Siena. Its been a tradition for forever, and many protest it because it follows many of the old horse racing traditions, such as riding bareback, and shooting a horse if it gets injured. Aside from this, it is still a crazy day because the whole city crowds into the city square (see left), and stands underneath the hot Tuscan sun all day, until 8 pm, when about a 6 minute horse race occurs around the dirt track circling the square (see right). Crazy. But its tradition, and a huge deal, so it attracts huge crowds with no fail. Veronika doesn't like it because she feels bad for the horses, so she said that she wasn't going to stand under the hot sun all day for it.

We walked around the city some more, and saw a really beautiful church (below), which was styled similarly to the one in Florence. The streets in Siena reminded me of the ones in San Gimignano, but they felt more traditional because they lacked the throngs of tourists. Also, the streets were quieter and simpler. But still very beautiful all the same. Also, man I could not believe the views. When you walked to the edge of the city on top of the hill, you could see out and the Tuscan hills surrounded you and faded into the distance in what looked like a scene from a movie. I can't believe Veronika got to walk past that every day. So jealous.

Also, please look at the view outside of her window (right). I couldn't stop taking pictures the whole time because I couldn't believe how beautiful it all was! It was so calm and so Italian.

I got back to the hostel that night and was so tired, that I only was Dj EG for like 2 songs, and then went to bed, officially ending my short but very fun career as a professional Dj. Haha.

The next morning, I woke up with the plan to see David, the famous statue by Michelangelo. When we got to the museum it was held in, though, the line snaked all around the building, all the way to another building, and all around that one. And the line didn't move. So, we (the 3 NY guys and me) canned that idea and wandered around the city some more. We walked up this hill and saw another really pretty view of Florence...

We walked around some more, and then decided to go to see David due to the fact that we were in Florence after all. Therefore we camped out in line, and paid 10 euro, and went inside to see what all the hype was about. I am torn. On one side, it was 10 euros to see a statue, but on the other, it was completely huge and very impressive. You can get an idea of how big it was from the picture on the right because there are people for perspective. I had no idea he was that big. Not going to lie, though, but his arms were awkwardly long. And his hands were wayy too big. This might also be why he is famous, and I'm curious as to if Michelangelo did that on purpose, or he had no idea about perspective, but I think it was most likely the first.

That night, we hung out at the hostel and watched the final of the European Cup. Spain v. Germany. I was hardcore for Spain, and was very excited they won, as were about 89% of the other hostelers there. Idk why no one really was for Germany. Perhaps it was because I don't think Spain won the cup since like 1970 something so good for them. 1-0. Was a good night. The next morning I checked out and made my way to Munich.

san gimignano

2008-06-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Note to dad... pizza is good in Italy, but honestly it's been really good all over Europe if you go to an Italian restaurant. By the time I got to Italy, I only had 1 piece because I was so sick of it, but it was quite good. But its hard to make a bad pizza.

The next morning, I decided to take a tour of the chianti region in Italy, home of the famous chianti wine. The really sweet hostel I was staying at (PLUS florence) offered cool tours and stuff every day. So, this is what I did. We took about an hour bus ride to the area, and had our first wine tasting at this little winery in the hills of Tuscany. We all sat under this terrace and homeboy the owner showed us the proper way to taste wine (hold it in your left, switch to the right, swirl it around, take a sniff, put a bit of it in your mouth and kind of wash it around some, then swallow). It was really awkward, but the wine was so much better after all the steps were taken, because it reaches all of the senses. We tried a white wine, a red wine, and 2 types of olive oil, both of which were amazing! I would have bought some except I am currently lugging around this giant suitcase with absolutely no more room inside of it. Two of the New York guys that were my roommates the previous night were on the tour, so I ended up hanging out with them again. We then drove to San Gimignano, a city made of towers from forever ago. We had another wine tasting, and walked around in the wine fields where the expert guy told us about their wine. It was so beautiful there, because you could see the rolling hills of Tuscany, as well as San Gimignano in the background. The top of the hill had a great view, and I took another picture of myself looking awkward in front of it (below). Not going to lie, but I am not a huge fan of these alone pictures. But it'd be even weirder to put a complete stranger in it with me, so what are you going to do.

We had lunch there outside in the winery, and we were served all types of bruchetta, as well as cheeses and fruits. It kind of felt like Macaroni Grill all over again, except this time no annoying manager telling me to push the appetizers and sell more bottled water. But the food was amazing. Especially the tomato bruchetta. After lunch, we went to visit San Gimignano, where we had ice cream and walked to the top of a tower for a pretty sweet view of the city. I hung out most of the day with these two Australian women-girls (at what age do you stop being 'girls'?) who were both traveling alone, so it was nice to see that I am not the only one traveling around Europe by myself. Then again, they were both like 30. Anway, the streets of the little town were really classically Italian, and I loved it, except for the 13513 tourists also enjoying this city as well. There must be no one in their actual hometown these days, because they are apparently all in Italy.

That night, I hung out with homeboy from New York again, and this time I actually started Dj'ing. I ended up being pretty good! We took turns mixing songs and cross-fading them etc. and the bartenders loved us so much that they wanted us to come back the next night again and they even put up fliers promoting us! Haha. Awkward. Especially since Nick (left in the picture below) gave me this horrible Dj name- Dj EG. Paha. Whatev. I took a picture of the fliers, but I don't think the picture uploaded. I will do it later if I remember. Still, though, it was so fun! I was like a legit Dj, and everyone thought we were like official and were asking us questions about drinks and making requests and everything! Perhaps I have found my new calling.

florence part 1

2008-06-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

So getting to Florence was kind of no good. Night trains are not the most fun thing I've ever been on, but I had to take one from Hamburg to Munich to Florence. It was so hot and you couldn't sleep because they kept opening the door every hour or so asking for your ticket. I got to Florence at 6 am, and checked into my hostel and luckily they had a bed open so I could crash for a few hours. When I got up, I decided to wander around for a bit.
One of the first things I went to get was gelatto, Italy's famous ice cream. It was really good, but I think it was similar to the gelatto I've had in other parts of Europe. Still, though, ice cream shops were everywhere and they were really cool because the tops were all crazy decorated with the flavor they represented.
I grabbed a map and then started making my way around Florence. The first place I visited was the Cathedral of S. Maria del Fiore, and the Duomo which was right next door. The cathedral was the world's 4th largest and it was beautiful. It was built in 1296 and was covered with green, white and pink marble. Along with the beautiful cathedral was about 47,000 tourists. There are so many tourists in Italy right now. I hear more English on a day-to-day basis than any other language, even Italian. So that part was kind of annoying- it meant that everything had about a 45 minute-3 hour wait (like for example, the David statue). Crazy. The inside of the cathedral was kind of boring, except for the ceiling, which was a crazy nice fresco.

Random fact: everyone in Italy really does ride around on Vespas, or similar looking scooters. In fact, instead of parking lots, there were vespa lots instead. One of the things I have always wanted to do was ride on the back of a vespa through the streets of Italy, but I settled for a picture of the vespa lot instead.

Even though I was wearing pants, I decided to climb the bell tower next to the cathedral because I wasn't hot enough in the 90-100 degree heat and sun. This fixed my problem, and I was sufficiently whoa gross and sweaty and hot when I got to the top, all 414 stairs of it. 414 stairs doesn't sound like that much, but it was whoa enough. I would climb a million stairs, get to a terrace and take a million pictures because I thought it was the top, and then I would see an even smaller staircase to the left. Then I would climb a million more stairs, think it was the top, and then see an even smaller staircase to the left. The final staircase was whoa tight. The view from the top, though, was worth it. Florence is such a beautiful city! I think when I get home I'll put together some of my panoramic pictures and when I remember I might upload it, but for now I'll just put this one up (right).
I wandered around some more, and then called it a day because I was whoa tired.
The next day, I met my new roommates and they were really cool guys from New York so I ended up getting some food with them and then we started wandering around the city. We went to see a bit of what I saw the day before, and then we ended up splitting ways because they wanted to check out one part of town and I wanted to check out a different one-the bridge and the other side of the city. On the way to the bridge, I passed by some guy painting a giant picture of Mona Lisa on the sidewalk. I figured it was one of those scams, where a really impressive painting is already mostly done, and then the guy just like pretends to paint on it, but never really does anything, and collects tips. Turns out, though, he really was painting it because when I came back that evening, he had the hair almost all done.

But that day I walked around some more, bought more ice cream and pizza, and walked to the Ponte Vecchio, Florence's oldest bridge that survived WWII. Eh, I thought the one in Prague was better because this one was just completely full of shops selling gold watches and various kinds of flashy stuff, but the one view from the bridge was really nice (above). I was getting good by this point at asking completely random strangers to take my picture because I had like 0 pictures of me in Sweden and Norway when I was by myself. On the other side of the river was a much quieter part of town, where I went to go see the Church of Santo Spirito (below left) and the Pitti Palace, which I didn't have time to go in, but was pretty from the outside. For lunch I had this really good Italian sandwhich, baguette, panini thing with real mozzarella and procuitto (sp? These computers don't have spell check so I don't know if half the stuff I am typing is correct) and it was soo good. And whoa cheaper than the main city center, where everything was overpriced for tourists. I walked back home after that and passed by some statues outside a museum, and this one looked familiar, so I took a picture of it. Turns out that it was familiar because there was a large picture of it in the hostel, but I'm not sure if it is actually famous outside of that. But it was still impressivly graphic.
That night I hung out with my roommates downstairs in the bar and one of the guys decided to start messing around with the Dj equipment, since no one was watching. One of the bartenders came around and asked him if he knew how to Dj, and he said yes (this was not true), so the bartender like came back with a case full of CDs and told him to go at it. So, for the rest of the night, I hung out at the Dj booth and watched him figure out how to mix songs, and helped him pick out music. I tried it once or twice but decided to just stick with picking out songs from the CDs. Still, it was so fun!

hamburg

2008-06-24T02:14:00.001-07:00

So… Hamburg. Eh. I thought it was an ok city. I kind of feel like its one of those cities, though, where you have to maybe live there or stay there a long time or something to really fall in love with the city. Kind of like Cork in that there really isn’t that much to do there but its a nice city. I was glad to be with Denis because had I been by myself I would have been pretty bored. But, we had a good time just hanging out.

One of the first things we did was hang out outside by the river, and watched various street performers and then sat on the pier for a while (below). Finally it was sunny in one of the cities we visited, which was a nice change. Except, then it got cold the next day, but oh well.

One important highlight about Hamburg, Germany is that it just so happened that while we were there, there was a massive Harley Davidson convention going on. I thought that it was just an American thing, but I over heard some of them talking in German. So whether or not they were all German, Idk. But, it is important to note that they were exactly the same as I would have expected, no matter what origin. They filled almost the entire city: tattoos, leathery girlfriends with too much makeup and hair gel, mullets (I counted 7), and of course entirely pimped out Harleys. We weren’t sure exactly what they were doing there, because they kept doing these parades and rallies and stuff, but on the last day we were there there was a massive Harley ride/parade, and they all drove past, living up their mid life crisis dream. Please take a look at the viking helmet worn by homeboy…

We went to see the Rathaus (above), but didn’t go in (other than to the courtyard, see left) because we missed the deadline and then I didn’t really feel motivated to go in the next day, since i was lazy. That was the only cultural thing we did in Hamburg, actually. But we spent the rest of our time there just hanging out, shopping, eating sushi and german pretzels, and wandering around.
The hostel we stayed at was kind of lame (A&O Hostel- avoid the lame chain if you can). It was so manufactured there and I kind of just felt like a number and the staff there were either wayy understaffed or just didn’t bother attending the massive line always at the front desk. But I didn’t really care too much because I had Denis to hang out with, but it, just like Hamburg, was not really a place I would go again if I were by myself.
We did watch the Italy vs. Spain game downstairs in the hostel’s bar though because the entire city seemed to shut down at dinner time, despite the massive soccer game on tv. Good game though-go Spain!

copenhagen

2008-06-24T02:13:00.002-07:00

So now that Copenhagen is my new favorite city, Gothenburg will have to be my second favorite. Or perhaps they are tied. I will have to live in both cities now to come to an official decision.
One of the first things that Denis and I did in Copenhagen was to go have a picnic in a graveyard. Sweet. It was weird to sit down in the grass surounded by famous dead people (such as Hans Christian Anderson), but apparently that graveyard was a park equivalent in Copenhagen and there were a lot of people camping out and eating lunch. According to our guidebook, it was a destination for suntans, but it was very cold and windy, so suntans were foregone. Anyway, we stopped on the way in the falafel district for some falafels and hummus and pitas and fries. Not exactly normal picnic materials, but falafels beat coleslaw and hot dogs any day. Speaking of hot dogs, though, they were everywhere. Hot dog stands could be found on every single block and had weird combinations of stuff such as this one that we had with a pita wrap, mashed potatoes, 1 lone hot dog, coleslaw, and katchup. Actually, maybe that was in Stockholm. Either way, though, hot dogs were everywhere.
Copenhagen was beautiful. Like whoa. Not in like a cliche kind of way, but it was such a nice city. The city was centered around the city hall square (right), and we spent a lot of time there deciding which way to go in order to spend our day. Also near the city center was Tivoli (right), a huge amusement park, and home of the largest carousel (in the world? Idk. left). But it was really old and really tall. We were going to go on it, but Denis didn't want to (if you read this, Denis, I take back the last sentence and maintain that it was a joint decision). Also near the center was what I decided was the ugliest bulding in the world- the movie theater (left). But now that I have gotten used to it, I change my mind. Its very ugly, yes, and would never make it in Cary, but perhaps it is not the ugliest in the world. I think that gold domed thing in Cary might top that list.
The hostel that we stayed at, Sleep in Heaven, was really really cool. They played great music and the enviornment was really chill and laid back. Denis and I stayed in one night playing chess (I won... once.) and drinking maybe the best beer in the world- Carlsberg Special. Carlsberg is brewed in Copenhagen, but this special version was darker and really really good. I hope that I'll be able to find it somewhere, but definitely one of my favorites.
We spent the next day wandering around the city. The buildings in Copenhagen were really cool- especially all the different spires. We later took a river boat tour and learned what all the spires belonged to, but my favorite was this grayish white one that were intertwining dragons on top of a trade center (I think thats right? I can't remember. Maybe an old stock exchange building. Idk.). The palace in Copenhagen was really nice as well, but we decided to save some money and not go inside.

Instead, we took pictures of the outside and went to visit the Carlsberg brewery. Compared to the Guinness Brewery (actually I think it was technically the warehouse), the Carlsberg one was much prettier on the outside but the tour wasn't as good. It looked like a palace from the front, with huge white elephants guarding the entrance, but then once inside the tour was kind of stressed-artsy. Too much drama for what was pretty much just fermentation and bottle production. Still, though, it was cool to see how the history of Carlsberg came about, and it was definitely cool to try the beer at the end. Denis tried a fancy Tuborg (or did I? I can't remember), because Carlsberg owns Tuborg, along with like a million other ones as well. I tried a fancy Carlsberg, and then we both tried one more, this time kind of a fruity one for me and a wheat one for Denis. In all, I was glad that I went, but it was crazy to think that they made something as boring as yeast fermentation into a giant tour.
Next, we climbed up a tower. I don't really know which one it was, but it was a famous tower in Copenhagen, where we had a nice view from above. Perhaps I will wikipedia it and make this more informative, but I'd rather focus on the extremely creepy dolls that could be purchased at the top (see picture). I cannot imagine who might want one of these dolls, unless maybe one was to star in a new Chucky remake, but I think something about half bear/tiger, half awkwardly joyful baby is creepy.
The next day we took the river boat tour. I think I would definitely recommend a river boat tour wherever applicable. It was really nice to just sit on the boat in the fresh air, and have someone tell me what I was looking at (in 3 very fluent and impressive languages) as we passed by. We passed by the Little Mermaid, which was one of the most famous sights in Copenhagen. It was a bit of a walk from city center, so since we were running out of time, we decided to make do with the picutures we took from the boat. Apparently poor Little Mermaid has been decapitated before, so now her head is full of concrete in order to prevent future beheadings. After the tour, we walked to the opposite side of town, Christianhaven, home of the best bakery and very nice part of town, and also home of the free town of Christiania, which will be explained later. At the best bakery ever, we bought Danishes, due to the fact that we were in Denmark and what better place to enjoy Danish Danishes? They were super good, and so were the sandwiches we bought there as well.

Then, we headed to the free town of Christiania. There is no real way to explain it, honestly. Pictures were not allowed, in order to respect those living there, but it was like the most intense hippyville ever. We had past by the river side section of the town on the tour and I took a picture of one of their cars, and that's the only picture I have that represents it. Their symbol was 3 yellow dots on a red background, and it was pretty much a do-whatever-you-want town, with crazy graffitti and crazy stuff going on inside. Cops either weren't allowed in, or were afraid to go, but they were camped right outside the town in full attire, as if they were ready to excercise a SWAT team raid. Denis and I felt really out of place walking around inside, but we tried to blend in as much as we could (putting our tourist map and guidebooks back in our bag). I tried wikipedia-ing it, but I couldn't find it online.* Basically it is a town free of laws, to some extent, and used to be really out of control back in the day, but it has calmed down a lot since then (I can't imagine what it used to be like). We kind of peaced out of their quickly, and it was weird because the moment we walked out from underneath the town's wooden archway, it felt like we were back in civilization again. Crazzzy man.
When it was time to leave, I was a bit bummed because I really fell in love with the city. Denis decided to travel some more with me, and we decided to head to Hamburg, Germany. We got to the train with about 10 minutes to spare, so we decided it was more than enough time for D to go buy some smoothies for the ride. This was not a good idea, and I do not suggest this to anyone. When the train pulled up and with no Denis in sight, I may have experienced the most stressful 6 minutes of my life. He appeared just in time, though, and we literally jumped on the train a minute before it left the platform. Once we found our seats, I calmed back down and looked forward to what would be in store in Hamburg.

* Update. I was spelling it wrong, aparently. So, here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania
Crazy place. Then again, no good pictures are available because it appears that everyone else was as scared to take a picture as I was.**

**Turns out there are pictures. But there are no people in them so the whole sense of Christiania is missing, as crazy as it was, so keep this in mind.***
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/freetownchristiania/

***I've always wanted to do this astrick thing at the end of an essay or something. Sweet.

stockholm

2008-06-24T02:13:00.001-07:00

I have now been demoted to 2nd class. Turns out Sweden doesn't care how sweet my ticket is, and still charges twice as much to reserve a first class ticket than a 2nd. Therefore, I have decided that I am too cheap to pay the 16 dollar reservation fee, and have stuck with my 8 dollar ticket with the rest of society.

When I arrived in the Stockholm central station, I realized just how big the city was due to the fact I had no idea how to get out of the station because of its hugeness. I was supposed to meet Denis in the 'front' but as far as I was concerned, there was like 5 different exits. Eventually we met up, and thus began the week of traveling.

Stockholm was huge. Idk how i feel about it, but it felt like every street was a highway. Later, I got used to it and started liking it more, but I probably needed to stay there longer to really appreciate the city.

Since the beginning of my traveling, the European Cup has been going on- EMFest. In Stockholm, there was crazy stuff going on everywhere and everyone was dressed up for the big Sweden game later that night.
There were concerts with huge screens to play the game later, and this one concert was super sweet in that the guy playing’s name was NordicMan or something like that. Denis and I both agreed he wasn’t very good. We wandered around the city for a while, and headed into Gamla Stan, which was Stockholm’s Old Town. I think that was my favorite part of the city in that it was quaint and cobblestoned. One street in particular was known for its ice cream, so this was obviously my point of destination. The shop we ended up at made their own waffle cones, so the whole shop smelled so good. I decided to go crazy and get 3 scoops, which was whoa more than enough. Best ice cream ever though. Then, this guy came in with his daughter or grandaughter or something, and was whoa spoiling her and told her she could get whatever she wanted, which was 5 scoops of lemon, after a very large tantrum that she really did indeed want all 5 scoops. She proceeded to eat 5 bites and then wandered away, so whether or not she finished a very large grown man’s portion of ice cream will remain a mystery. We also tried a Belgian waffle the next day, with a scoop of ice cream on top and that also was amazing. Man I love ice cream.

That night we went to the Stockholm Ice Bar, which was featured on the cover of one of our roommate’s Lonely Planet of Sweden. Why, Idk. I was kind of expecting something crazy, but it was literally a really cold room with some blocks of ice and cups made of ice that you can drink out of. We got to wear really sweet parkas though. Denis and I decided it wasn’t worth the steep fee (payable upon purchase of a drink) so we took some sweet pictures to make it look whoa more exciting than it was and then bouced, happy we saved like 20 euros.

The next day we took a ferry over to Djurgården, to see the Vasa ship museum and Skansen, a very large, open air museum. This is what I learned about the Vasa ship… it was a warship built for Sweden in the 1600s, which sank after sailing less than a mile into her maiden voyage due to the fact that it was so packed full of cannons that it was too top heavy (see super artistic photo that I took of a model representing the sinking, on left). Denis thought it was cool because he’s an engineer and proceeded to explain exactly why it sank, in engineering terms, but what I got from it was that it was heavy and sank. Anyway, it disappeared under water and it wasn’t until 1961 that it was re-discovered, preserved, and brought to the museum. It was, in fairness, a really cool ship. It was pretty much all intact and the details were incredible.

We stayed at the museum for quite a while and by the time we made it over to Skansen, we only had about 45 minutes to see all the old fashioned houses with actors portraying old fashioned roles. For example, we went to the local apothecary and she made us smell all these horrible smelling tonics which apparently used to be used back in the day. Everything in Skansen was real, and had been relocated to the area in order for the museum to contain all types of houses one might have seen in Sweden back in the day. One of the houses was for a poor farmer or something, and the house itself was crazy small. Once the actors closed up, we headed to the animal exhibits, where we saw lots of different Scandinavian animals. Pretty much just a zoo, but it was still pretty cool.

gothenburg take 2

2008-06-12T03:17:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Gothenburg. Like whoa, actually. So far, this is my favorite city. People say that Stockholm is better than Gothenburg, but Idk. I think I have found my future home. Therefore, the plan for my life now goes like this...
1. Learn Swedish
2. Move to Gothenburg
3. Live forever

But, what has happened so far...

Johanna had to go to work so I hung out with Marie (her friend) for the first part of the afternoon. Gothenburg is apparently known for their seafood- esp. their shrimp/prawn. So, for lunch I had another shrimp sandwich at this cafe and it was soo good. I can't remember if I have ever put shrimp in a sandwich before coming to Sweden, but check one for Gothenburg.
Marie said that Sweden is, especially lately, very health conscious. Most all the bread you can buy is whole grained of some sort, because fiber is in right now.

Marie had to go to work around 3, so I wandered around for a while. I saw the Redoubt Crown (according to wiki, a redoubt is a 'a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, though others are constructed of stone or brick'). It had a nice view of the city around it, but that was about it.

I then met up with Isadora-the girl I would be staying with for the next 2 nights. Isadora was really cool- she volunteers for Greenpeace, and she is a huge activist with them. She was telling me all about the things that she has done, and apparently got sent to jail once for protesting something. She actually was going to protest a ship that hunted endangered fish the next day, so I would be on my own once again. That night though we went to a pub in the city to watch the European soccer cup, because Sweden was playing Greece. Sweden won- 2 to 0, so I chose the right city to visit on game day.

The next day I walked all over Gothenburg. The city wasn't too big so I could get around anywhere on foot, but by that night my legs were pretty tired.

Gothenburg is BEAUTIFUL. There was this one part of town, right before you got to Haga (the old part of town), where there were a few blocks of huge, old, beautiful buildings (left). After I learn Swedish, I will also then become a millionaire, and then I will move myself to an apartment in this area.

Right around lunchtime, I went on a Paddan river tour (I am obviously not on the tour in the picture below, but this was one of the Paddan tour boats, like the one I took) and we went around the city to see all the main buildings. The driver was really nice and friendly, and told really lame jokes that all the old women laughed at. I was the only one on the boat that spoke English, but he still translated everything he said into English for my benefit, so that was cool.
We got to this one bridge, though, which was apparently the lowest bridge in Gothenburg, and we all had to get off our seats and crouch in the aisles as to not pull an Anne Boleyn. The tour guide called this bridge the 'cheese slicer' (see right- the guide is facing us, and the green bridge directly above his head was how close we were). Momentary excitement, but then once I realized we were not all about to die, the excitement was over and the tour continued on.

For lunch I went to a market and bought shrimp salad and a roll, and made a sandwich that I ate at a park. I then walked back into Haga and had coffee on the strip. Very good coffee and very cute part of town.
One of the things that Gothenburg is famous for, other than its shrimp, is its amusement park 'Liseberg'. I walked to it, but when I realized that it cost like 20 dollars just to get in, let alone another 60 dollars to ride any rides, I let that one go. Also, I am not a huge theme park person, which I blame the fact that we never went to Disneyworld, therefore never having the early brainwashing like the rest of America. But, I hear its a good park, so maybe I'll go back when I move here. Instead, I went to the Gothenburg museum, which may or may not have been the creepiest museum ever. This was probably because I was the only visitor in all 4 floors, and it was kind of dark with Viking exhibits, etc. I couldn't help but thinking about 'Night at the Museum' as I creaked around in the empty rooms. One in particular was kind of crazy- it was this whole room, filled with little neon cubicles and chairs (right). I looked at those for a while, but got sufficiently creeped out and left.

Today I bought more ice cream and visited the Botanic gardens. Not going to lie, but it wasn't all that impressive. I am my fathers daughter, and take way too many pictures as well, but probably took about 3 the whole time I was there. One of the ones I took, though, (left) is of the Japanese inspired pond. I was thinking about taking a ferry to an archipelago, but I don't know if I'll have time. Haha, when I think of archipelagos, I think of Farmington Woods when Ken Coriale won that competition for knowing what one was. Haha man good times...

Anyway, I LOVE Gothenburg. Love love love it. I'm sad to leave it tomorrow, but Stockholm is calling!

oslo-gothenburg

2008-06-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

(above) Vigeland Park in Frognerparken

2nd day in Olso, Norway...

After breakfast, we all put on sundresses and took Atlas, Silje and Hans's giant dog, to Frognerparken, a huge park in Norway. It included a giant pool, large parks-including a dog park where Atlas proceeded to jump on every single dog in Norway- and Vigeland Park- a huge sculpture park filled with lifesize statues made of granite and bronze by Gustav Vigeland. I think there was over 200 or something. Lonely Plant described them as 'screaming pot-bellied babies to entwined lovers and tranquil elderly couples', and I think that suites the varying emotions well. It was crazy though, some of them were really intense. Like there was this one where this man had a woman's head by her hair and was flipping her over backwards. That one was kind of violent, but the others were pretty normal. Two in particular were pretty famous. One was of this little baby, who was pulling a tantrum and had his little fists all balled up and was screaming (left). Silje said it was probably so famous because all mothers know that look so well. The other one was of this man with 4 children, all hanging off of him and he looked really stressed. It was kind of funny because there were other statues with men and children, but only 1 or 2 and the men looked really peaceful and had the situation under control. The 4 baby statue, though (right), was a bit different. Silje said that statue was a sign to her that she should stick to 3 children or less.

All the statues lined the park on both sides, and led up to this giant phallus made of all these bodies climbing to the top. Silje said it took something like 30 years to build, and it was all from one giant stone. Like Mount Rushmore, but the bodies were not presidents and included men, women and children, and far less huge. So nothing like Mount Rushmore then I suppose. But the picture does not do it justice. The huge collumn of bodies was so tall. I can't imagine how hard it was to make, but it was really impressive.

We walked around the park for a while, and then we went back to the pier, where Silje and Hans (left) bought ice cream and I bought a hot dog. An expensive hot dog. I still can't get over how expensive everything is in Norway. Silje said it is the 2nd most expensive country in the world. I don't know what the most expensive country is... maybe Japan or Iceland? Definitely not the United States. Everywhere I go people are talking about how now is the time to go to the US since our dollar is so weak. Go America.

They both had to go to work after lunch, so I headed to the National Gallery, which housed the infamous 'Scream' painting by Munch. I had no idea that Munch was Norwegian. I also thought the painting was still stolen. Turns out it was returned a year or two ago. Silje said some guy just walked into the gallery, took it off the wall, rolled it up, and then walked out with it in plain sight and no one stopped him. Maybe that's just a myth, but either way, security had stepped up a bit since it was returned. There was a guard in every room, and about 2 in the room with the painting. The 'Madonna' was there too- another one of Munch's famous works. There was also a Munch museum, which had another version of the 'Scream' painting in it (which also had been stolen and returned), but it was kind of expensive, so I stuck with the National Gallery. I managed to sneak a picture of it, incase it ever got stolen again, so I could prove I saw it at one point.

I was kind of tired so I bought an expensive cup of coffee, but I had run out of money at that point, so I couldn't afford to add cream to it. Therefore, I decided to compensate the black coffee with 3 large clumps of sugar. Turns out this is not a good compensation. The very strong coffee, now also very very sweet, was the most intense cup of anything I have ever made myself drink. Next time I think I'll stick to 1 clump.

I headed to a little park, and made myself another PB&J sandwich. The little jar of peanut butter I bought a few days ago I think is going to become my new best friend. I stayed there for a while, wrote down what I did that day, watched the fountain, and told a homeless guy I didn't speak Norwegian when he came over to ask for something.

That night I went back to the apartment and watched 'Out of Africa' with Silje, since Hans had to work. During the movie, I started thinking about how weird everything all was. I was thinking about how I was watching an old Meryl Streep and Robert Redford movie with this random Norwegian girl (who were very cool but this is irrelevent) and how I was completely away from home, and completely on my own.

The next day I took a train to Gothenburg, Sweden. I think winning the RailEurope pass in the NC State photography contest was the best thing that has ever happened to me. It was a first class pass, so I was riding in first class (Komfort Class) with red plush seats, old ladies with little dogs, and free coffee and tea. Crazy. The ride was pretty short, and once in Gothenburg, I got picked up by Johanna, who I met on CouchSurfing, and who I would stay with that night.

I think Johanna was maybe the nicest host ever. She had this whole picnic planned, where 2 of her friends came, and we had this really elaborate picnic in a park. She made baguettes with shrimp in them, fruit with cheese, and homeade Swedish cinnamon buns which were amazing. All her friends were really cool, and I'm going to wander around the city today with one of her friends while she is at work. I had a really good time at the picnic, and back at her apartment where she played all this good Swedish music.

So far, I love Sweden. If it weren't for the fact that I cannot understand the language at all, I would move here in a heartbeat.

kerry-oslo

2008-06-07T05:23:00.001-07:00

Monday morning bright and early I packed up my room to leave Cork. It was super sad, not only trying to fit everything I owned into 2 suitcases, but to end what had felt like an era. At one point, I got into a conversation with Denis as to how long an era actually was but whether or not 6 months classifies as one, I don't know. Anyway, Denis came and picked me, 2 suitcases, 34 extra bags full of random stuff, and 2 purses up and drove all of us to Kerry, where his family is from. That was really fun and his family was really cool.
The next day Denis drove me around Kerry to see the countryside and cities like Killarney, where I got some really expensive ice cream and visited a really pretty house in the national park (right). We also drove through this valley called Black Valley I think, but it was completely empty, except for beautiful scenery and random little houses. Apparently there was this one spot that he called the 'postcard shot' except the bridge was torn down and reconstructed so it wasn't as pretty, nor was the weather too great, but it was still really pretty. Near the end of the drive was a sweet lake (top left). The next night we camped out on Inch Beach (left), and made 1 hot whiskey. I think the plan was to make more, but we were so tired that we fell asleep immediately after pitching the tent so we made only the one. I had never had a hot whiskey before, and it was really really good. It also might have something to do with the fact that Denis added like 2 spoons of Irish honey to the little cup of diluted whiskey, but either way it was very good, especially with the lemon and clove details (see right).

We drove to Dublin the following day, where I was to fly to Oslo.
I flew with RyanAir and they did not let me down this time. The plane was like half full, so I had an entire aisle to myself. The plane ride was really short and I landed in Oslo, about an hour and a half outside the city since RyanAir doesn't fly to convenient locations. Therefore a bus was needed to drive into city center, where I sat next to a really interesting randomer named Richie. I think it's so interesting how complete strangers will tell you absolutely anything about their life. I got to talking to this guy, a 20-something soccer player from Dublin, and learned all about how his sister had a baby with his wife's brother, and how her at the time boyfriend then broke up with her and proceeded to get kicked out of his band due to all the scandal. Also, he was tired of living in Dublin, and wanted to move his entire family to Australia, but his wife has too many friends in Dublin to agree to the move. Details like that. Maybe I just have a friendly face, but he talked to me for an hour and a half and I had never met the guy in my life. I wonder if maybe I could travel on buses as a career and write a book about all the randomers who tell me stories.
When I got to Oslo, I was very proud of myself because I managed to find my hostel all by myself. Anyone who is anyone who knows me knows that I cannot navigate myself at all. At all. I run on gut instinct, in that if I feel that I need to turn left, then right is probably the correct route. Or straight, depending on the intersection.
I would just like to say that Oslo is the craziest most expensive city I've ever been in. The hostel charged me the equivalent of like 10 dollars to use sheets for one night, not to mention something small like a water bottle costs about 4 dollars. Lame. Anyway, that night I crashed almost as soon as I got in. For some reason, I had the room all to myself, which was nice but I got a bit lonely. I pulled out my diary that I started the first day of my travel- actually the entire diary consists of that one day seeing as how I abandoned it the next when I realized this blog was a more convenient alternative. But looking through it I realized that I had come a really long way since that first day I was sitting in the airport, freaking out that I was by myself and that I had to figure out how to get to Ireland. Little did I know, I'd be freaking out 6 months later when I had to figure out how to get around Europe all by myself.

Oslo Parliment Building

The next day I slept in a bit and then headed to city center. I was really proud of myself when this random lady came up to me speaking Norwegian, asking for directions to her hostel and I was able to help. Then again, the only word out of all of which I heard was 'Anker', which was the hotel right next to my hostel, but with very efficient hand gestures, I was able to be of service. With my renewed confidance that maybe I could survive after all, I grabbed a map and headed into town. First of all, it was soo hot! Being used to cold Ireland, I was wearing jeans and a thick cotton shirt, which was a bad idea. It was so hot and sunny that guys were walking around shirtless and girls were all in summer dresses. I proceeded to be way too hot for the next few hours until I got back to the hostel and changed into Norwegian attire. Female that is.

Apparently there was a music festival going on in Oslo today, and I saw a bunch of really cool bands. There was this one that was really crazy, and I took a video of it but I'm not sure if it turned out ok, so I'll upload it later if it does. But it was this like whoa white gangster Norwegian guy, who was really really good. The crowd loved him and was dancing and waving their arms in the air and singing along. I met up with this couple in Oslo who I would be staying with from CouchSurfing, and they were really cool and we got ice cream and sat on the pier (right). We sat there for a while, and it felt really cool to be overlooking the Oslo water, eating icecream, wearing a sundress and hanging my feet off the dock listening to the bands in the background playing music I could not understand due to the fact that they were all Norwegian bands. I was kind of worried about traveling all summer by myself, but sitting there on the pier, eating icecream was such a nice experience that I am really looking forward to the rest of my summer!

leaving cork

2008-06-01T11:07:00.001-07:00

So tonight is my last night in Cork. I'm moving out of my apartment tomorrow morning, where I am heading to Kerry and Dublin (both in Ireland), and then I fly out to Oslo, Norway.
Here is my plan as of now:
Cork-> Kerry/Dublin -> Oslo (Norway) -> Gothenburg, Stockholm (Sweden) -> Copenhagen (Denmark) -> Germany -> Switzerland -> Italy -> Turkey

I'm not sure how updated I'm going to keep this thing since I'm not bringing my laptop, but I'll see what happens.

For anyone who has been reading this- if you want to email me or something I'll be able to keep whoever updated that way.

Bye cork!!

fota photo

2008-05-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

Friday morning we woke up and it was whoa gross outside. According to the box on my Google homepage, it was supposed to thunderstorm and heavy shower all day long, so we decided that it was perfect weather to go to an outdoor wildlife park.

Fota wildlife park is not like any other wildlife park I've ever been to- it was mostly all free-range and animals roamed free, mostly behind fences, etc. but some of the animals could go wherever they wanted. For example, the lemurs mostly stayed on their island, but some came over to say hi and this one really liked Kym:

But from the beginning... we took a 15 minute train ride to Fota, which was weird because I didn't know that it was so close to where we lived. We started out on the monkey island walk, where there were lemurs (left), gibbons/baby gibbons (right), and squirrel monkeys (below).

There were a million other kinds too I don't remember all their names. I averaged about 740 pictures per animal, so when this one lemur came over to us with 2 babies on her back, my camera got a good workout. Actually I don't think I stopped taking pictures the whole time I was there. My favorite monkey was the gibbon baby who was adorable, but he was kind of far away on his island.

We passed by some seals, who were very boring, and so were the swans and ducks, who acted just like all the swans and ducks I've seen over the course of my lifetime. What was really cool, though, was the cheetah run. At 4 they let out 2 cheetahs and attached this dead chicken on a zipline, which flew across this stretch of land, where the cheetahs chased after it, mocking a hunt. It kind of reminded me of playing with Kobe (our cat) and trying to get it to attack the fake thing that we're bouncing around her face. The cheetahs would be really interested in the chicken as it zoomed past them, feathers and bobbing neck and all, but if they couldn't catch it then they lost interest. The zookeeper would then bring it back and zoom it past in the other direction, where the cheetahs would run and pounce again, until finally they caught it, and ripped it apart in a very not children friendly kind of way and then ate it. It was fun but the first chicken got ripped in half and the the little girl next to me was not a big fan of this. Fota, though, has raised over 100 cheetahs, who have been born in the park. It's apparently really hard to breed cheetahs in captivity, but since they try really hard to keep them in a natural environment, they have been really successful. The other really cool part of the park was the huge open are where giraffes, ostriches and zebras hung out and ate lots of grass . This one ostrich was crazy. It spotted us from a far and came charging. It really was kind of scary, because all that was separating us from the very intense ostrich was this little wooden fence. Luckily, it couldn't jump the fence (even though it tried), so it gave up the chase, and proceeded to just stare at us from a few feet away.
We saw a lot of other animals too, including this one called a 'mara' or something that is half guinea pig and half hare- from South America I think. They were cool, and very weird looking but definitely half rabbit half rodent (left).

Overall, very good day. And turns out the weather was beautiful the whole day. Goes to show that Irish weather is completely unpredictable and never follows the forecast.

Kym, Johnny, and me. I'm going to miss these roommates!! ...

munster

2008-05-29T02:50:00.000-07:00

(left) A giant Munster jersey hung over one of the pubs in Cork

Last Saturday, we all met up at a pub downtown to watch the Heineken Cup- Munster vs. Toulouse (a French team). Munster is the area of Ireland that includes something like the south western part- including Cork. It was a really big deal because it would be the second time in 3 years when Munster won it, and I don't think they won it before that (maybe they did but it was a while ago?). Idk. But either way it was a big game.
The pub was whoa crowded and everyone was really excited and we had such a good time. We got there at like 3 and the game didn't start until 5 but we wanted good seats, so we had a while to sit around and hang out.
The game itself was really exciting- it stayed close the whole time. By the first half we were up by 4 points and then we stayed tied for a while. The second half though we got back ahead again, but not by much so we were all really tense and waiting for the French team to score at the last second, but luckily it didn't happen.
Munster won 16-13 and at the end of the game, when Munster lifted up the Heineken Cup the pub went crazy and for the rest of the night everyone was in a good mood.

Me and 2 of my friends at the pub:

Mostly just a lot of people yelling:

-------------------------------------------------------

Ok this part is random and nothing to do with Munster, but I wanted to include another building in Cork that I didn't go look at on my tour of Cork. Well, technically I have a really far away picture of it but this is St. Fin Barre's Cathedral up close...
This is by far my favorite cathedral in Cork and I walk by it almost every day, but never have a camera with me.

Back view:

Front view:

so this is cork

2008-05-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

It's finally summer here in Cork and it's beautiful. Earlier today Kym, Johnny, Denis and I laid out in a park next to the lake, both Kym and I in tank tops, and made daisy chains. Or at least Kym and I made daisy chains. Then, I decided to see what would happen when I took mysteriously large flower petals which had fallen from a tree, peeled off the top layer and adhered them to my leg. Turns out this is not a good idea. I now have very mysteriously large and permanent flower-petal-shaped orange stains on my leg. It kind of looks like fake tanner, but if I had just slapped some on my leg and decided not to even out all the streaks. This is not related to anything I am about to write about, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

So, I realized when I bought this chocolate bar with all of Cork's famous buildings on it (it was an impressive chocolate bar) that I hadn't seen hardly any of them. And if I had, it was in passing and no photographic documentation had been made. I guess in whatever city you live in, you end up taking it for granted and don't go around being all touristic like you would if you were vacationing there. Probably the same reason I haven't been to many of the major exciting attractions in Raleigh. I'm not really sure if there are any exciting attractions in Raleigh, come to think of it. Then again, the Inner and Outer Beltline are pretty cool...
So what my friend Paula and I decided to do was explore Cork and take a camera with us this time. It felt really weird whipping out a camera and taking pictures of stuff I walk past every day. We started out by walking to St. Anne's cathedral (left). On the way, we walked past many really cool colored houses, which I walk past all the time but realized that I never stopped to pay any attention. It's crazy here how houses are colored. Unlike Cary, where if a business buys the wrong shade of magenta the city flips out, houses right next to each other are painted completely different colors. Actually it was this way in Prague too. But it's kind of drastically noticeable in Ireland. Even the stone walls outside of the homes have separating colors, despite the fact they share the same wall. I think it makes the city streets look cool, but I can't imagine Cary ever agreeing with me. Next to St. Anne's was another cathedral- I think that one was just called the Catholic Cathedral (left). We passed by some other cool churches and more pretty houses, and I took many many more pictures to remember my time in Cork. Then, we headed into City Center, which is my favorite part of town and the part that I will miss the most. I took pictures of all the important buildings such as Tesco and Hillbilly's Fried Chicken Express. Both of which are very important parts of my life. On the way home was St. Fin Barre's cathedral, which overlooked the river Lee. Across the river was the Beamish Brewery. Beamish is Cork's Guiness. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but Guiness is not the stout of Cork- in fact, you're not 'supposed' to order it here because it's brewed in Dublin. Walking past the Beamish brewery on my weekly run to Tesco is a very interesting experience. It's kind of like walking past a giant yeast factory or something. It smells like bread all the time. Which I guess is normal since I'm pretty sure yeast is an ingredient in beer/stout? Idk.
When I get to the fork in the road just after the river, it is a sign that home is near. Except it is a very long uphill walk from there. But still, after every trip to city center, it is always exciting to get to this fork (below).

And here are some more landmarks that are also just really sweet buildings...

Raleigh's Rent-A-Bike. Maybe I just like it because it has the word Raleigh in it, but it might also be because there is a very intense painting on the front:

Barrack St. book store Co-op. Because any building is cool with clouds painted on it:

And then is our house. Of which I have already posted a picture.
And that's it for today. I think later this week we're going to try and hit up all the other cool parts of Cork but now I am going to go play a game called Does Fingernail Polish Remover Also Remove Plant Pigment...

the one about food

2008-05-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

I was reading back through some of my old blogs and some of it made me laugh. For example, Kym and Johnny are not married- in fact, they are both a year younger than me and that would be weird. I'm not sure why I thought two of my roommates were married in the first place. Also, the part about all guys wearing track suits is not true. Turns out like a whole lot of them do but it is a certain type of person who wears track suits, and I'm not going to get into that right now because I'm not entirely sure how politically correct all that is.

But anyway, food. I have been making a lot of food since coming to Ireland for two reasons: 1. We don't have a living room so if I get tired of my 7 sq. ft room I have to go to the kitchen and 2. All of my roommates are crazy good cooks. Ok well maybe not like 3 of them but everyone else is. Kym and Johnny are really into vegetarian health food and Laura and Robin are really into crazy extravagant meals that include doing things like making pasta from scratch before making spaghetti.
Every once in a while, we will make a meal that is impressive enough that I'll go take a picture of it because I'll probably never do it again (similar to the fresh Italian food that Veronika brought back from Italy earlier).

Here are two of them:

1. Smoked salmon bagel. We got up early in the morning and walked to the Quay Co-op health food store in city center and bought fresh bagels. They had just been cooked, so they were warm and fresh. Amazing. We then went into the English Market to the fish center and bought fresh smoked salmon- caught and made in Ireland (I think actually our whole idea came from the fact that Ireland was known for its smoked salmon and we wanted to try it). Then we bought fresh sundried tomatoes from another shop in the English Market which were super expensive but super good. The cream cheese and sprouts came from Tesco, the best grocery store ever, but those were like normal food items. Best sandwich ever. Probably cost like 7 euros per bagel but still. Best sandwich ever.

2. S'mores. Haha these were ridiculous. They probably speak for themselves...

Oh and the yellow marshmallows? Leftover Peeps from my Easter Basket that my mom mailed me from home. Poor peeps didn't stand a chance in our grill.

prague

2008-04-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

Sam and I took a bus from Vienna to Prague and we arrived in the early afternoon so we had most of the first day to just look around. The first thing that I noticed was that Czech is a ridiculously hard language to understand.

When we were in Vienna, German was obviously everywhere but at least partially manageable because since English was derived from it, most of the words sounded exactly like English. Not the same with Czech (oh and side note, Prague in Czech is Praha. I think Prague sounds better though). Also, English wasn't plastered everywhere alongside it as was the case most of the time with Austria.

But anyway, language barrier aside, Sam and I arrived somehow at our hostel (Sir Toby's=nicest hostel of all time), grabbed a map, and headed into town. Our plan for the first day was to just head into Old Town, which was where a large clump of the major sites were in the city. The thing about Prague, though, was that you don't really need an agenda. The streets all along the way into wherever you want to go are worth looking at and taking pictures. Anway, so as we slowly made our way into town, somewhat distracted by the fact that Prague may or not have been the most beautiful city I have ever been in, I took plenty of pictures and we saw plenty of tourists. Unlike Vienna, where all the tourists were Asians, Prague was filled with Italians. I have no idea why this is true but they all looked exactly the same: black skinny jeans, black jacket (with our without fur lining), and sunglasses. Guys and girls. I think the reason why I noticed the sunglasses bit was because it was not sunny in Prague. It was rainy and cold. But despite this somewhat important fact, sunglasses were everywhere.

The first big thing we saw was the clock tower of the Old Town Hall, where its astronomical clock (left) entertained hords of tourists on the hour, every hour. Why you ask? I have no idea. The clock itself was whoa beautiful- it had 1 dial which represented the position of the sun and the moon, and then a calendar thing that pointed to what month it was. Maybe the day too but I don't know. The reason, though, why the entire square becomes clogged with tourists on the hour, every hour, is because the clock puts on like a 30 second show with slow-moving Apostles and a bell-ringing skeleton every hour. On a scale of excitement, I'd rate it a 2 (1.5 of that score was from the excited anticipation of what will happen when the hour struck). But it never failed, the square magically filled up again 59 minutes later with more hopeful tourists.

We walked around Old Town some more and saw the famous Tyn Church, the Municipal House (above right), the Jewish Quarter (right), several more churches, and many many more random buildings- all of which were completely different and completely beautiful. Prague was different from Vienna in that every single building was different than the next. In Vienna, I felt like everything was beautiful but everything was white. Well, kind of eggshell. In Prague, though, there would be these long stretches of houses and shops, all connected, but every one would be a different color and style.

Disclaimer: this panoramic shot is horrible. Note to self: do not just slap together one of these things and think it will turn out when you get home. It won't. But anyway, it looks kind of distorted but below is one of the main squares in Prague and you can get a good idea of what the city was like:

At this point, the sun was starting to set so we headed toward Charles Bridge- the biggest tourist bridge ever. But totally worth it. On the way, we took several pictures of some of the smaller bridges, as well as several million of the sun setting over Prague. It was a good night.

We reached Charles Bridge, and the first thing I noticed was all the statues. The bridge had 30 statues, which dated back to the 18th century (according to Lonely Planet). The other major feature of the bridge is the people on it. There were insane amounts of vendors, artists, and street(bridge) musicians. We actually visited the bridge at several points throughout our time there and each time different musicians were entertaining on the bridge. Two of them in particular caught our attention and we watched them for a while. The first was this old-school style Czech band with all kinds of instruments-including this guy with 2 whisks and a washboard. One guy sang (or at least I think he was) sporadically along with the music. Pretty cool. The other guy, though, was the best. By far. Homeboy somehow figured out how to play champagne flutes not only one at a time but all together into songs like Stairway to Heaven, Yesterday, and of course My Heart Will Go On. Classic. Seeing as how all of my entire repertoire of piano playing resides in that one song, I thought it was only fitting to include it as a tribute to Mom and Dad and Laura who I'm sure love hearing it as much as I do:

The next morning, Sam and I met up with this guy who we had met through CouchSurfing and he was so cool. I am not sure if he was a gypsy or just in a hippy cult, but he reminded me and Sam of Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. He was this really serene, calm, peace and love kind of guy with long brown hair who showed us around the city. His friend came and met us, and he was really cool too. I think at one point he had dreads, but all that was left of those days was 1 very long single dread, which kind of stuck out of his head awkwardly. Anyway, those guys were really nice and that morning we had coffee with them and listened to Jack play gypsy music on his accordion. Then, that afternoon the guys took us on a whirlwind tour of Prague where we saw the Prague Castle, climbed the Petřín Tower (a smaller version of the Eiffel Tower- right), walked through one of the parks, had lunch at a hot dog stand, and went out at night to this completely crazy looking industrial music bar called Cross Club. The whole place had this weird green glow to it and everything moved- for example: in the foosball room there was this huge foosball table mounted upside down on the ceiling and all the players were spinning and rotating in slow motion. Crazy but really cool.

The next day, Sam and I made a trip to the Vyšehrad Castle, which had probably the most intense cemetery I've ever seen, which contained the remains of several famous people in Czech history. The castle itself was situated outside of the craziness of the rest of the city, so it was really peaceful and calm when we got there. I think it may have been my favorite place in Prague, and probably part of it was to do with the fact that it was so peaceful there. Sam and I spent a couple hours just walking through the cometary, looking at all the grave sites. Every single one of them was extravagant and individual. Flowers of all kinds were everywhere, as well as large statues and monuments overlooking each grave. There was this small path which lead up to the top of the city and we just sat there for a while, looking at Prague below us. I remember talking with Sam about not believing that we actually were in Prague, of all places, and that very soon we'd be returning back home and all the craziness of this semester will just be memories.

This past Spring Break '08 has been amazing in that we were able to go and do some of the things that I'd been wanting to do for so long and didn't think was possible (ex- the Vienna Boy's Choir). We met some really cool people traveling, especially on the Paddywagon tour, who have made me really think a lot about what it is exactly I'm doing with my life and where I want to go with it. I still really have no idea what my future plans are, but somehow I want traveling and seeing as much of the world as I can to be a part of it.

vienna

2008-04-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

SB Part 2A: Vienna

After giving ourselves a few days to do laundry and re-group, Sam and I packed our suitcases once again for Vienna and Prague. When we were planning our spring break originally, our first plan was to visit about 5 countries back-to-back and give ourselves 1-2 days in each place. Luckily, we changed our mind to only visit 2 cities and stay long enough to actually experience each place.
We began our trip by flying into Vienna, Austria. We arrived there late Saturday night, and my first shock was that everything was in German. I knew ahead of time that this would be the case, but everywhere else I've traveled consisted of either French, Spanish, or English- the first two being ones I could at least get myself around in. German is a whole other story. I had no idea what any signs read or what anyone was saying. So getting from the bus station to our hostel (which ended up being in an alley off of another alley off of another street that wasn't labeled) in the dark was pretty hard. We ended up just getting a cab (our first and only cop-out of the trip) and found our hostel that way. We stayed at the Wombat hostel and it was really cool. Actually, all the hostels we have stayed at were really cool. I think Sam looked them up in the Lonely Planet first though, so it wasn't just a coincidence that they all have been fun.
The next morning we got up really early in order to go see the Vienna Boy's Choir at the mass in the Royal Chapel. Our first shock that morning was the weather. It was really sunny and actually warm- unlike Ireland which can get sunny but is still whoa freezing. Map in hand, Sam and I ventured out once again into the streets of Vienna, this time actually being successful in orientating ourselves in German. The Hofburg Palace housed the Royal Chapel, and both of them were stunning, especially contrasted against the bright blue sky. Everything pretty much in Vienna was huge, white, and gorgeous. Anyway, following a very long and complicatedly disorganized ticket buying procedure, we enter into the Chapel and were escorted by young guys who looked like they had all just hit puberty (our theory was that they used to be members of the Boys Choir and then got kicked out because their voices changed and were demoted to ushers) to our seats and waited for mass to begin. I had never been to a mass before, but hearing it all in German was really weird but interesting. I couldn't help but remember the scene in While You Were Sleeping where the grandma says that she likes mass better in Latin because you can't understand what they are saying. This was exactly what the mass in Vienna was like. Intermittently between segments of mass was the Boys Choir. They sat above the audience/church goers and sang for a few minutes off an on throughout the hour. There was something about sitting in that Chapel and listening to their amazing voices but I definitely got chills every time they sang. There was this one little Asian boy who was brilliant. He was obviously the star of the Choir and sang independently multiple times. Not going to lie- he was amazing:

After mass, we took some pictures outside of the palace and met Mozart (who, by the way, was exploited like whoa not only by really cool gold statue people but also by chocolate makers. Mozart chocolate was sold everywhere-I'm sure Mozart would be proud). Then, Sam and I wandered into the middle of the most shopping-intense street I'd ever seen. Back-to-back were stores like Gucci, Prada, Tiffanys, Lacoste, Chanel, etc. Also, everyone smoked. Everyone. There is a smoking ban in Ireland where you can only smoke outdoors, but the weather outside is such crap that you don't really see that much of it. Not the case in Vienna. Sitting outside (or inside) as far as the eye can see are people smoking. I think if I were to have studied in Vienna I would have picked it up, so I think my lungs are probably pretty happy I chose Ireland instead.
We stopped at this red-umbrellaed sidewalk cafe for breakfast. Sam and I had heard about this chocolate cake called sachertorte, which was this famous layered cake with apricot jam in the middle which was big in Vienna. We both got coffee and split a piece of the cake and took off our coats and just relaxed in the sun in the middle of Vienna. Not going to lie but I was really happy that morning.
After the cafe, Sam and I wandered around some more and toured the different sights in city center. We saw St. Stephen's Cathedral (right), which is supposed to be one of the biggest landmarks of Vienna and has been under continual construction since 1147. Kind of like NC State campus. Sure enough, there was work being done on it when we were there. The inside was just as beautiful as the out, and it was cool because mass was going on there as well so we watched that for a bit and then headed on to more touristic goodness. With no real agenda, we took pictures along the way as we picked out stuff on the map to see and as we passed buildings along the way. Along with huge and beautiful white buildings were huge numbers of Asian tourists (as opposed to huge groups of Italian tourists in Prague). The city center was super crowded in front of the Albertina (left), which was a museum I would have liked to have gone into but it was closed both days we were there. We looked around for a while, and then ended up in a massive park in front of another large glass-enclosed greenhouse. I was amazed by the number of people just hanging out in the huge green field. I think what was so different from America was the number of completely grown adults (both men and women in very nice clothing I might add), who were just relaxing or playing around with their kids. I'm used to parks back home which are filled with stay-at-home moms, and even they don't look that relaxed because they are yelling at someone to stop jumping off something or to stop throwing something at someone. This park was just completely relaxed, and since it was Europe, no one was working overtime on weekends and everyone was just hanging out. Some guy had his guitar and was jamming with one of his friends near us, where we had set up camp just laying in the grass in the sun for a few hours.

Once the sun went down and it got colder, we picked back up and headed back into the city. We passed by several street entertainers- artists, break-dancers, and more painted individuals ranging from ghosts to old-fashioned travelers. According to our Vienna map, the best ice cream was at a place called Zanoni & Zanoni. Since our breakfast consisted of cake and coffee, we decided to hit up the dairy section of the food pyramid and make an ice cream lunch visit. The map was not lying- and that ice cream was amazing (we would proceed to eat there every day until we left for Prague). A few more hours of wandering and then we had dinner at a traditional Austrian restaurant and ordered the only logical option: wienerschnitzel. I had heard the name many times, but had no idea what it actually was until that night. Turns out wienerschnitzel is just pretty much breaded and fried pork, which kind of tasted like Chinese food, but it was whoa good. We also ordered the local beer (Stiegl) and sausages. It was a huge meal, but wasn't that expensive because it wasn't Ireland and food wasn't taxed like crazy.
Oh, and there was this dog in the restaurant who I think belonged to the owner and who just like hung out and ate scraps. This is completely unrelated to anything, but I just remembered it and thought it was funny because if it were America, that restaurant would have been shut down so fast. Turns out Austria isn't a stickler on things like dogs roaming freely in restaurants.
That night we hung out at the bar at the hostel and met some more cool people, one guy from England who had been all over traveling and this one guy from Iceland who had sweet dreads. Actually, he was also cool because he was from Iceland. No one is ever from Iceland.
The next day we did some more sightseeing and did a little H&M visiting since we were in the EU again and were back to Euros. We went to see Mozart's house (I'm not sure if he is actually from Austria but he definitely lived there at one point) and then saw the Museumsquartier, which was a big area of museums and cafes and shops.

We cut our sightseeing a little early in order to meet up with a girl from Vienna who let us stay with her that night. She was a recent graduate of Meredith back home and was living in Vienna and working at an elementary school there. Her flat was beautiful and we had a really fun time hanging out with her and one of her friends. We ended up going out to a bar that night which was supposedly an 'Irish Pub' but there was really nothing Irish about it. Sam asked the bartender what, other than the fact that they sold Jameson Whiskey, made their bar Irish. The bartender answered her by saying 'Well, we sell Guinness too.'

Sam, Carolyn, and me:

belfast and the causeway

2008-04-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

SB part 1B: Belfast

The last day of the Paddywagon tour left us in Dublin, where Sam and I stayed at yet another hostel and made yet another dinner of pasta (our cheap way of not spending money on dinners, except pasta for 3 weeks in a row eventually loses its appeal) and went to bed early in order to get up early for part 1B.
The next morning we woke up, walked around Dublin's main university college campus- Trinity College- and then hopped on a bus headed to Belfast. The bus ride was a couple of hours and fairly uneventful, but the weather was nice yet again. When we got to Belfast, we checked into our really nice hostel (Belfast International Youth Hostel in case anyone was planning on going to Northern Ireland) with the intention of leaving the next day and catching the bus back to Dublin and from there, Cork. While planning out our day, we looked at a brochure about the Giant's Causeway up in even further North Ireland, which happened to have a tour bus that went every day and left from our very hostel. Being as that there was absolutely no way to go see one of Ireland's major attractions and still catch that bus back, we decided that the only logical decision would be to just stay another day in Belfast. With this new plan formed, the plan for that day just became to wander around the city and see what all we might happen upon.
I would just like to say that while I'm sure some people really love Belfast, it was whoa rough around the edges. Sam said that it used to be one of the 5 B's of places you did not want to travel to (Baghdad, Belfast apparently, and 3 more that I'm sure are equally sketchy). Now Belfast is fine, especially since it is not being bombed anymore, and tourism is starting to skyrocket. But that being said, it was still not a city that I would rank as safe as Cary. For example, while we were taking pictures of Queen's University (left), we got approached by this mostly-likely homeless guy on a bike who I swear was an idiot-savant because he was slightly mentally disabled, but had an unbelievable photographic memory. He was asking us things like where we were from and what we studied, and with every answer we gave him, he started spouting off random and complicated facts about everything and anything related. It was fascinating at first, until we got kind of sketched out and weren't sure what exactly he wanted so we peaced out. Queen's University had really pretty botanic gardens and green houses, so we decided to duck in there to avoid said creepy guy. The gardens around the university were very well kept and pretty, but what was really amazing was the 'Tropical Ravine' and 'Palm House', two huge plant and flower sanctuaries. From the craziness of the streets in Belfast, the two houses were a huge stress relief. We stayed in the Tropical Ravine for a while, and then barely made it into the Palm House before it closed. I think if I could have any job in the world, other than a National Geographic photographer, it would be the maintenance person who kept up the Palm House. The fragrance and serenity of a huge glass house of flowers is pretty much the most calming experience I've ever had. It'd be the exact opposite of working at K.B. Toys in the mall.
After getting kicked out of the flower house, Sam and I wandered around the park some more and then headed into town. Being that everything was on the English pound, we didn't do much shopping. Actually none at all-towards the end of the trip Sam and I were even counting out our change to make sure we had enough for pasta dinner #2324. Why Northern Ireland doesn't just become part of the Republic, I don't know. Euros are so much better. Anyway, we wandered past all the H&M's and went sightseeing in the city center. On our way into town, we passed this billboard:

2 things:
1. What is Dolly Parton doing still in concert?
2. How in the world is it sold out?

Next, we passed by the Belfast Opera House, and then a church or two which were quite statuesque, and finally the City Hall (left)...and its accompanying Ferris Wheel. City Hall was beautiful. We spent quite a while looking all around it at all the beautiful statues and white columns. And then, of course, we rode the 'Belfast Wheel'. Apparently it was for raising money for the new and safer Belfast, but we didn't really care about that seeing as how the Ferris Wheel was only like 6 pounds and was a 15 minute interactive tour of the city from above (right). It was really high-tech and had music playing on the inside, as well as this somewhat annoying man's voice pointing out all the buildings in sight. Well worth 6 pounds in our opinion. That night, Sam and I cooked more pasta, changing it up a bit by trying a new brand of sauce, and met some really fun Australians who were in Belfast for their daughter's Irish dancing competition. The whole family was there, down to the crazy grandma who shared her wine with us. Why Irish dancing is popular in Australia is beyond me, but apparently the daughter was really really good (and would end up winning 10th in the world the next day).
The next morning, Sam and I got up early again for our tour of the Giant's Causeway. Our first stop was at the Carrickfergus Castle, which was pretty much just a standard castle, and then got back on the bus and headed down the coast, where off in the distance was, I believe, a glimpse of Scotland. We took another break at Carrick-a-Rede, which was the home of a 30m rope bridge high up in the cliffs that is put together every year by fishermen who are in search of Atlantic salmon. I was picturing a really terrifying rope bridge with unstable planks, similar to the one in the Emperor's New Groove, but it turned out to be quite a safe one, despite the fact being very high up in the air. After crossing over to the other side, we explored the small little island and took a million pictures of the Northern Ireland coastline. I think the whole bridge thing is supposed to be the 3rd most touristically visited place in the UK- the 2nd is the Giant's Causeway and the 1st is the castle where the movie Harry Potter was filmed. Another Harry Potter fact which I forgot to mention on the paddywagon tour post is that according to Joe, within the next 10 years, Harry Potter will be the most read book in the entire world, even more so than the Bible. Crazy. Then again, that's another Joe fact.
The last major stop of the day was the Giant's Causeway (we did stop off at Bushmills, the world's oldest whiskey distillery in Ireland but I didn't have any money and didn't like whiskey so I think I was eating a sandwich or something during that photo opportunity). The Giant's Causeway was unbelievable. According to the Giant's Causeway brochure, it is called the '8th Wonder of the World', but despite this quite biased opinion, I would have to agree. It reminded me a lot of Stonehenge, in that it was a completely natural phenomenon that got its name because people claim that giants built it. The Causeway was a huge span of coast, filled with perfectly hexagonal columns of stone, some small enough to jump from one to the next, while others were so huge that I couldn't even link fingers if when I hugged one (for an example, see left). There was a cliff walk up over top of the causeway, which Sam and I walked and it was really cool to see everything from above. We took about a hundred pictures because everywhere you turned you could see hexagonal pillars coming out of the earth, in varying sizes and directions. When we walked down toward the coast, there was a whole section of them that were a lot smaller and that extended out to the sea. I climbed out on the farthest one I could in order to touch the tip of Ireland's North Antrim Coast. I think that the stones were made from ancient volcanoes or something, but it was really crazy the way that everything fit so perfectly together. I had never heard of the Giant's Causeway before coming to Ireland, but I'm really glad I went especially since I'm not sure when I'll be back to the tip of Northern Ireland again.

paddywagon

2008-03-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

--UCC's spring break is from March 20-April 20. My plan to travel around until mid April is now up and running. SB part 1 was a 3 day tour around Ireland over Easter and then a trip up to Belfast with my friend Sam. Part 2 starts tomorrow at 8 am, where we are flying to Vienna and then to Prague. Part 3 is a week trip to Manchester to visit one of my friends--

SB part 1A: Paddywagon tour

I had no idea what exactly I'd be getting into exactly on this tour. All I knew was that Sam told me it was a 3 day tour around Ireland and that one of the stops was the Guinness brewery. So when we showed up in Dublin at 8 am on the 21st I was bracing myself for a tour around Ireland with a handful of wealthy geriatrics on some version of a midlife crisis. With the exception of Martin (an elderly German man who ended up being really cool despite the fact he was probably expecting my former vision), our tour consisted of really fun 26ish year olds, mostly from Australia, who were taking off a week of work to hang out in Ireland. Sam and I were on the smaller bus out of the two that were running the same tour- ours had maybe 20 or so people on it (compared to the other giant one with who knows how many) so we got to know everyone on our bus really well. Our tour guide's name was Joe and he was this 26 year old Irish guy who rambled for 3 days straight with funny jokes, stories, and histories of the places we drove past. I have no idea how much of the information I learned on the trip is true or not, seeing as how some of the stories he was telling were completely out there, but I had a really good time.

The first place we stopped at for a photo break was the Papal Cross (left), where the pope apparently had something to do with Mass at some point. I don't really remember because I was kind of distracted by the fact that it was really sunny and beautiful outside and I wasn't used to that. Clonmacnoise (right) was our next stop which had some of Ireland's Golden Age celtic crosses inside on display, as well as a whole field of more modern ones. More beautiful weather. An hour or two more driving and we arrived in Galway. I'd already been earlier, but had only spent about 2 hours there and this time we were there for the evening and night. Sam and I wandered around the city for a while and spent some time at the Galway Bay (left). The hostel that we stayed at was whoa hippy. I think a requirement to work there was for guys to have long, stringy hair and act strung out. Despite that though, the hostel was really fun. Sam and I got thrifty and went to a nearby grocery store and bought pasta for a cheap dinner. That night, we had a party over at the hostel with both tour buses. Joe brought his guitar and we just hung out there since it was the Friday before Easter and all the pubs were closed.

The next day we started our drive down the West Coast. We saw some castle (left) and then drove to the ocean. Once again, the weather was beautiful. Having lived in Ireland now for a few months, Sam and I were fully aware of the fact that nice weather is often short lived, and rain was always just around the corner. So with every hour or so, one of us would poke the other and point at the blue sky- amazed that the weather was holding out so long. We then made a stop at the Black Head (on the right- you can make out the eyes and nose on the upper left hand side of the picture). According to Joe, drinking from this spring would give you healthy children or something like that. Despite my current plan to move to Africa and own a large wildebeest herd for the rest of my days, I went along with the crowd and tried it. We got back on the bus and headed to the Cliffs of Moher (second time for me). Not to let my previous run to these cliffs be outdone, I proceeded to take just as many pictures as I did the last time. So now I have something like 14 identical shots of the cliffs, both in rainy and sunshine conditions. What was different this time, though, was that Sam and I decided to jump the fence that separated tourists from cooler pictures, also known as the edge of the cliff. We had about a 15 minute photo shoot on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher before this guy in a green vest came over and made us leave. But I'm not going to lie- the pictures we took were a lot more interesting than the ones I took the last time I came. Plus we got to incorporate a run-in with the law. Or the mall-cop version of the law that patrols the tourists at the cliffs. Same thing.

After the cliffs, we stopped off at a pub called the Singing Dog (apparently back in the day there used to be a dog there that would bark on cue) and had a pint. I actually had about a half a pint because it was something like 2 pm and way too early for Guinness. Our final stop of the day was to the beach in order to watch a sunset. About half the things on our itinerary were not originally there, and were just spontaneous ideas of Joe, but since I didn't really know what I was doing when I got on the bus for the first time, I had no idea what was planned and what was not. But what I do know, though, was that the sunset beach thing was not planned. I'm glad we did it though because it was amazing. Those of us who were willing to risk our lives climbed down these huge boulders to the bottom of a cliff in order to walk in the sand, touch the water, etc. Ok maybe not risking lives seeing as how even Martin did it, but it was a bit of a climb down. As the sun was setting, the clouds came in and the reflection of them over the thin layer of waves on the sand was beautiful. I wished we had stayed for the full sunset, but since we had to climb back up the rocks before it turned dark I missed the last few minutes of it. That night we ended up at some town which consisted of a street. Actually one side of a street. A street with maybe 9 buildings on it, including houses and our hostel. It was a good night though- we hung out, ate, and listened to music at a small restaurant until about midnight and then crashed back at our room.

The third and final day on the Paddywagon tour was Easter Sunday. And the weather was beautiful. Again. We started off the day with running out of gas right as we pulled up to a gas station. Joe had joked about how Paddywagon was really RyanAir on the ground, and he wasn't kidding. So all of us got out of the bus and the guys pushed it to a pump while the girls took pictures. Once refilled, we drove back to Cork and stopped at the Blarney Castle, where I kissed it yet again. Apparently when you kiss it you not only get the 'gift of gab' but Joe said it is accompanied with 7 years of good luck. So as of today I now have a solid 14 years of good luck ahead and extremely eloquent speech to look forward to. I am slightly worried that kissing it the second time just negates the first but I'm going to assume I'm in the clear. I of course took more pictures of the Castle, as well as another one of me kissing the stone, but no need to post more identical castle pictures. While in Cork, Joe told us all about the Titanic and how one of the stops was Cork and how every major ships that leaves the Cork Harbor sinks. Seeing as how this was the one and only fact he told about Cork, it was kind of annoying since it was my home and all but whatev. Apparently the White Star is commissioning an exact replica of the Titanic and it is set to sail in 2012. It will be called Titanic 2 or something and it is identical down to the very same menu and decorations. Only this time there will be lifeboats and a GPS navigational system. Joe said it's already all sold out, even though it won't even begin building until 2009 and tickets are in the upper thousands. Insane. Yet, this could be one of those stories that are not true and I'm pretty sure that he told quite a few of them but this one sounds plausible. You couldn't pay me to sail on a Titanic 2.

For lunch we stopped at the Rock of Cashel, where I was able to get inside for free because Sam had a leftover pass from an old archaeological field trip. It was beautiful. After being in Europe for a while, castles, bridges, and churches all start to look similar and lose their appeal but this Castle was different. It was completely huge and completely stunning. The land surrounding the castle was what I expected Ireland to be like when I first arrived. Green, rolling hills as far as I could see. I saw a complete rainbow and clearly saw where it ended, and it wasn't far away. I'll admit it- I did a double take on the spot where it hit the ground, hoping for a second that I'd see a pot of gold, but then I remembered that Santa wasn't real either and moved on. Below I'm putting a picture of the landscape around the castle. You can't really tell how green or pretty the sky was because the color is a bit off, but both the green grass and the blue sky were really vivid:

And then began our drive back to Dublin. We passed by the 'battlegrounds' where the movie Braveheart was filmed, and we learned a ton of random trivia about the movie. For example, the extras used in the movie was the Irish army- since Ireland never is wars with anyone, soldiers have some free time on their hands. Also, the movie was filmed at like 430 am so that no cars would drive by on the road right outside where it was filmed but apparently there is this one scene where a bakery truck or something drives past Mel Gibson's left shoulder. Why a white bakery truck was driving around Ireland at 430 am or why the director didn't take it out, I have no idea.

Our tour concluded at the Guinness storehouse. I don't even love Guinness that much and I thought the brewery was unbelievable. We saw how it was made and what all went inside it. Not to mention the very obvious subliminal advertising that was on every square inch of the huge, huge building. In the tasting lab, we all got to taste a fresh batch of Guinness which had just been brewed. It was so light and smooth. I have no idea what happens between Ireland and America, but what I tasted in the tasting lab was nothing like what you could get at the Hibernian back in Raleigh. We then all got a free pint of Guinness in the Gravity Bar, or however they called it, which was just the top floor of this gigantic storehouse with an incredible 360 view of Dublin. We then hopped back on the bus and that was the end of the tour. Which is now the end of the longest post ever.

patrick the saint

2008-03-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

So one of the things that has always been on my to-do list was to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. Others on this list include: win the lotto, buy a chocolate lab that will play Frisbee with me at the park, get a tan that is not mistaken for a deep burn, visit every continent, live in Africa, etc. So, check one.

Turns out, though, that St. Patrick's Day was pretty much code for 'international day' and Irish people don't even really care that much about it (aside from a day off classes and a day in the pub). Whatever. I was in my picture taking prime at the parade, completely happy that I could be as touristic as I wanted. My friend, Katie, came up to visit me from England and we spent the weekend hanging out and doing Irish things. Like going to pubs. We went out to a bar/pub called Sober Lane on Friday night which was really fun- a live band was there playing cover songs which included old school stuff as well as Justin Timberlake. Sweet. Then on Saturday we had a chill night and made chocolate chip cookies from scratch and watched the cycle 10 season of America's Next Top Model- all 4 hours of it so far.

Monday was St. Patrick's Day. We woke up super early (like 11) and got ready for Cork's parade that was held, as it should have been, on St. Patrick's Street. There were a million vendors selling food and drinks which were all freshly made and smelt amazing. Only it was one of those scenes where it was so crowded you had to shove small children and old people out of the way in order to make your way down the street with food. The parade itself was pretty normal when it comes to parades, but I really enjoyed it. There was this really amazingly cute kid on the other side of the street, so when the parade got to a slow part I would just watch her hitting her brother in the face with her Irish flag. There were also a million very excited parade attendees who were whoa dressed up, so I was pretty entertained looking at everyone. When I got home and looked at my pictures, I realized I had more pictures of the parade-goers than the actual parade.

After the parade, Katie Kym Johnny and I went to a really fun pub called Slainte. We hawked this little table near the back, which ended up being the best spot because in then came a million trad players. The place got packed and I think we stayed like 4 hours or something just listening to the music and conversing with this really friendly drunk old man sitting next to Katie who was supposed to be playing the flute but was distracted by becoming best friends with us. That night we went home, made dinner, and then Katie and I went back out to celebrate St. Patrick's Night. I think this was definitely one of my most favorite weekends in Cork. When I was at the pub, I was looking around at everyone and listening to the music and I realized that I did NOT want to go home. I look forward to seeing my friends and family, but I will miss Ireland and its really chill pub scene immensely.

Yet another video clip:

galway

2008-02-28T04:04:00.000-08:00

I haven't really posted anything in a while because I've pretty much just been going to class and writing essays for the past week or so. It's starting to get kind of busy here with all the work now due at once.
I finally got around to doing something fun though- last weekend the International Student Society planned a weekend trip to Galway. Except we were really only in Galway city for about 2 hours the entire weekend so I'm not sure why they called it that.
So Friday morning we woke up whoa early and met downtown at like 730 or something and headed out. The bus ride was pretty long- I think like 5 or 6 hours, but we stopped at a few places before getting to our cottages. Our first stop was the Cliffs of Moher, which are pretty famous in Ireland and were beautiful. The wind there was pretty intense. Actually the wind the whole weekend was pretty intense. So we looked at the cliffs for a while, as well as the castle next to it. I took probably 85 pictures of the cliffs, only to find that when I came home and uploaded all my pictures on the computer, every single picture looked exactly the same. Kind of like when Dad took all those pictures of Mt. Rushmore...
The next place we stopped at was the Aillwee Cave, which was known for its bear bones found there. We ate lunch in the cave's cafe, and then took a tour of what may have been the most commercialized cave I've ever been in. We were allowed to take flash photography and the cave had a paved pathway and lights, so it wasn't exactly the most rugged cave I've been in, but definitely pretty. The few pictures I have of the cave look just like I took some quality pictures of a black hole with so I won't put them up.
Our cottage that we stayed in was the cutest cottage I've ever seen. Technically, its maybe the only cottage I've ever seen but it was on the ocean front and was really cozy so I think it still qualifies. We had to pay 2 Euro, though, every few hours to keep the electricity going. We'd all be sitting around a table, for example, and out of no where the lights would just turn off and we'd be thrown into complete darkness, and whoever was in the shower at the time would start yelling to turn the lights back on because they were trapped in a what-became-freezing box of running water. I was lucky, though, and managed to take a whole shower without the lights going out, and it may have been the best shower I've ever had because I was so cold and the water got really hot. When I stepped out of the shower, the entire room was so hazy that I could barely see my hand in front of me. No joke.
Saturday morning we all got up and I decided it would be an excellent idea to take double the dose of Dramamine because we'd be getting on a ferry later and I wanted to make sure that I'd be as anti-boat sick as possible. Because of this idea, Saturday was the day that I became a narcoleptic. Apparently, Dramamine makes you sleepy. Before the pills started to take effect, I was wide awake and enjoying what may have been one of the most terrifying ferry rides I've been on. The water was so choppy and the boat went so fast that the entire ferry would rise up out of the water and then slam back down, motor boat style. We were swaying side to side, on top of crashing up and down, which caused many people to have to leave the seating area to go hang over the side of the boat. I, of course, had no problems with sea-sickness, yet this was about the time I started sleeping. Saturday pretty much went as such: We took a bus tour of the Aran Islands where I napped and then we got out, looked at a pretty view, got back in the bus, I slept, got out and looked at a pretty view, got back in the bus, I slept, got out and looked at a pretty view, got back in the bus, I slept, etc. When we were actually on the bus and looked at sights out the window, if there was something to see, Madison would poke me, I'd look out the window, and then go back to sleep. One of the places we saw when getting off the bus on the tour was a really pretty grave site next to an old church (see left). Actually it may have been an old monastery but since I was sleeping when our bus driver was telling us about it, I have no idea. Another stop was to look at the ocean, at a spot where a lot of seals usually hang out (see picture above).
For lunch, we stopped at another site called Dun Aengus (see picture- got it off the internet so the steepness of the cliff can be seen), which were cliffs about 350 feet above the ground. There were no guard rails or anything preventing people from falling off the side or from leaning over the edge, taking pictures (which is exactly what we all did). In the picture I took off of the internet, on the right, the center square in the middle of the rock wall is where we were at, eating lunch. This was maybe one of the prettiest views I've had of Ireland, not counting some of the hikes I've been on. Below/to the left are all shots I took of the cliffs off of Dun Aengus. I'm making them small to fit them all on, so just click on them if you want to make them bigger. I slept on the ferry ride home, and then I slept on the bus ride back to the cottages, and then I slept during tv night, where we were watching some really bad version of Ireland's American Idol, and then I went to bed at like 8 pm. Lesson learned: Dramamine is not necessary.Sunday, when we woke up to get ready to leave, there was a huge rainbow outside our cottage overlooking the ocean. Of course I took about 234 pictures of this, along with several shots of the view outside from our backyard (see left and right). We then headed to Galway, where we spent about 2 hours eating lunch and shopping in the streets. Galway was such a cute and pretty town, very touristic but very pretty at the same time. There was this one mural painted on the wall of a building, which was a really accurate painting of living legends (such as Michael Jackson, Bono, etc.), legends who have died and are now 'in heaven' (such as Lennon and Johnny Cash, and then at the very top was God, hanging out with Elvis. I couldn't fit the living legends level in the picture, but the rest can be seen below.
I'm having a really good time here and I'm not ready to go back. I'm starting to plan my easter break, where I think I may go visit some friends in Europe, or I will just stay in Ireland and travel around a bit more.

Kym and I hanging out with Oscar Wilde and his dad in Galway:

tradfest

2008-02-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

This week's hike took us to Hungry Hill, which was in county Cork, but it still took about 2 hours to get there by bus. The hike itself was pretty easy, and the views were nice, but it didn't compare to the last 2 that I've been on. I really did appreciate, though, how chill the hike was because I don't think I could do two insane hikes back to back. The climb uphill took about 2 hours, and it was pretty tricky. The email that was sent out about it had a disclaimer about how there would be a 'fair bit of scrambling' involved. Apparently, 'scrambling' means climbing with your hands (and feet) uphill on rocks, etc. Once we got up to the top, the fog sort of came out of nowhere and then we were back to not being able to see 5 feet in front of us. It was so cold and windy and rainy up at the top, but we only really stayed long enough to eat lunch, and then we climbed back down. The hike down took about 2 hours as well, but it was pretty much just walking down a boggy hill with more sheep and their poop. Once at the bottom, we ran across this little puppy who I think belonged to a house nearby (seen in picture below). I considered sticking it in my backpack, but our bus driver is pretty hardcore and won't let us wear our muddy boots on the bus, so I figured he'd have a problem with a live animal, so I put it back down and got on the bus sans dog.

----------------

TradFest 2008

6-10 February 2008 was UCC's TradFest, which was the 'highlight of the Irish Traditional Music Society's year' (according to the brochure). Basically every day for a week, there was a whole schedule of events going on. We attended the ones we could, and everything we went to was pretty good. Monday night we went to a student session at a pub called An Spailpín Fánach (left). It was cool to see students my age playing traditional music, because up until then I'd just seen old people playing it. They were good, but it was pretty chill.

Friday at lunch we went to a concert on campus with Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Brendan Begley (also according to the brochure). But they were amazing. The fiddler was good (and surprisingly attractive), but the accordion player was the best. He played a few numbers on his own and sang some as well.

Saturday afternoon we went to another pub called Sláinte and heard another student session. This one was a lot better, partly because there was a wider variety of instruments. We listened to them for about an hour, but then got distracted by the rugby game (Ireland vs. France- Ireland came from behind and almost won in the end but lost by 5 points).

2 video clips below:
1. Friday lunch concert
2. Saturday student trad session

memoirs of a pancake.

2008-02-10T16:02:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, February 5th, was Pancake Day in Ireland. I have no idea if it was Pancake Day in any other country, but in order to compensate for potential missed holiday celebrations across the world, our house decided to make pancakes all day from every country we knew how. Which meant just 4: America, Ireland, Germany and France.

Between the hours of 2-4 pm, we created our version of German pancakes for lunch (see recipe below). Our roommates from Germany told us how to make them, so we knew they were authentic. This one especially was quite good, but no picture documentation occurred because we remembered our camera after finishing it off. But it was super good.

German pancake:
2 eggs
1.5-2 spoonfuls of flour
some milk
random ingredients found in your refrigerator that need to be eaten.
-whisk first 3 ingredients together and create a large, pan-sized omelet/crepe.
-flip pan-sized omelet/crepe.

For lunch dessert, we had French pancakes: aka crepes. We then put Nutella, bananas, and honey on them and they may or may not have been the best 'pancakes' ever.

French pancake:
-look up recipe online. I have no idea how to make them because Johnny did it.

For dinner, we had American pancakes. These were quite good as well, but nothing special because I've had an American pancake once or twice in my life. Except I did add blueberries and chocolate chunks to add some interest.

American pancake:
-see French pancake directions.

For dinner dessert, we had Irish pancakes. These were basically a mix between the American pancake and the French one, but instead of maple syrup you squeezed a lemon all over it (a large pan-sized pancake once again), and then sprinkled sugar on top and rolled it up in a log and ate it that way. These were pretty good as well.

February 5th was a good day.

frolicking in the snow

2008-02-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

Back in high school when a few of us took a trip to France, there was a moment where, standing on a hill overlooking one of the castles just as the sun was setting, our French teacher told us to stop and 'really absorb this moment because you may never get one like this again.' Ever since then, whenever I'd come across a moment worth holding on to, I've tried to follow her advice. This past Sunday there were several of these 'moments' on what may have been the hardest single-day trip I've ever been on.
To begin with, the bus ride up to Hag's Glen at the Reeks in Kerry was one of the prettiest bus rides I've had. Madison at one point noted that she'd be completely fine paying the 7 euro trip fare just for the bus ride alone. We were driving through a light snow, passing by endless green hills covered in snow, and the music on the bus was this soft sort of EverAfter-ish opera/classical music, which blended perfectly with the weather outside. I pretty much spent the entire ride with my arm stuck in Madison's face, trying to take pictures of what was probably every single tree up the mountain.
We began the hike by hiking up a waterfall. It wasn't snowing at this point, which helped, but the hike required mostly all 4's, and every so often I'd slip and in order not to land in the waterfall, I'd have to pull myself back up. Which meant that 30 minutes into the hike my upper body was already pretty spent. Once we got to the top, we got a glimpse of the 2nd tallest mountain in Ireland, the one we were about to climb. Other than being huge, it was also covered in snow and overlooked a really pretty lake which would later be in about 3452 future pictures. I actually think I'd be a much better mountain climber if I didn't bring my camera with me because I keep wanting to stop every 3 seconds to take a picture.
We then began the mountain climb. Which was actually the rest of the hike. So for about 5 hours, we hiked through the snow, which was anywhere between about 6 inches to about 1.5 feet deep. When we breaked for lunch, it was snowing, and we all sat down in the snow (snow angels, snow fights, snow men etc. included) on a big rock which overlooked the lake. Then began the hardest part of the hike, which was a really steep incline for the rest of the way up the mountain. I was back to using all 4's, only this time instead of stepping on rocks, I was stepping in 2 feet deep snow, trying to not slide down the mountain. Which we all did to some extent, but then you'd just have to like pull yourself back up into place again. Which is why my body is still sore and it's Tuesday (Pancake Day in Ireland actually- more on that later). This stage of the hike was so hard. And not just like 'wow, what challenging climb this is'. It was like, 'holy crap. I can't see the top of the mountain. Or breathe'. (Note: this is just me. I'm sure all the rugged mountain climbers in the group thought it was a piece of cake). But once reaching the top, and after climbing the summit of the 2nd tallest mountain in Ireland, and looking out at the completely incredible view, I had my second 'moment'. There was not one way you could look that wasn't completely stunning.
The "hike" down the mountain was also probably one of the funnest things I've done in Ireland yet. Because of the insane amount of snow, we figured out that you could just sit down and sled down on your butt. So we managed to descend the mountain (that took us about 5 hours to climb) in about 1 hour, by mixing a little bit of sledding and what can only be described as 'frolicking' the rest of the way.
As much fun as the hike was, though, I crashed soo early. Actually, I could have fallen asleep at like 9, but since I have access to the wonderful invention of facebook, it was probably like 1030. But still way earlier than I've gone to bed since coming here.

bubble hits.

2008-02-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

For the sole purpose of wanting this as a reference, I wanted to make a few lists of things going on here- music, fashion, etc. that I might would want to remember later. Especially some of the sweet music videos that I'm planning on including.
So here goes...

Fashion:
Guys- tracksuits. Whoa jealous when I'm sitting in class, cold and wet, and then I look over at the guy sitting next to me with his magic hydrophobic pants, neither wet nor cold. And not everyone wears them. Obviously if you're going out at night this is not the attire used, but I'm not going to lie- there are a lot of tracksuits here.

Girls- going out clothes. All the time. Class attire: skinny jeans, flats or boots, cute shirt, scarf, coat (not the NorthFace coat seen by many-a sorority girl at NCSU but, for example, a double breasted wool coat). Pub/Club attire: dressing up. There is none of this 'jeans and a nice shirt' look seen back in NC (aka my wardrobe- which means I just wear jeans and a nice shirt anyway and then look like I'm bumming it when I go out. But whatev). Girls are super dressed up- dresses, boots/heels, and an intense amount of makeup.

Music:
Disclaimer...This music collection is based on the frequent viewing of the 'Bubble Hits' channel (kind of the MTV2 music channel) on the individual tv's at the Mardyke Gym, where Kym and I usually go about every day. Due to the fact that Ireland has about 8 channels to its name, if one wanted to jog in place for 45 minutes at about 11 am on a Saturday, there is absolutely nothing to watch on tv except for really bad Irish soap operas or the Bubble Hits channel. Which is why this following selection of songs all fall into an MTV'ish style, rather than all types of music in Ireland. Some are really weird (see Robyn's 'Handle Me'), and others are whoa pop songs (see Leona Lewis-the winner of the UK's version of American Idol-'s 'Bleeding Love'), but I'm not going to lie- some of these songs are pretty catchy. Also, they are everywhere.

Lupe Fiasco - Superstar
Mika - Relax, Take It Easy
Robyn - Handle Me
Robyn - Be Mine!
Mutya Buena ft. Amy Winehouse - B Boy Baby
Scouting for Girls - Elvis Ain't Dead
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
T2 (Ft. Jodie) - Heartbroken
Craig David - 6 of 1 Thing

Obviously big songs (why the simple plan one I have no idea) that I'm including anyway...
Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music
Simple Plan - When I'm Gone

and then of course Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, OneRepublic ft. Timbaland, Soulja Boy, etc.

first trad session

2008-01-29T16:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday our Italian roommate came back from Italy and brought back some authentic mozzarella and prosciutto. She had a lot left over so Kym and I made what may have been the best lunch I've had yet since being in Ireland. Ironically, this meal had nothing to do with Ireland whatsoever but oh well. We cut up tomatoes and sliced up a mozzarella ball and then cut strips of prosciutto over it. I had to take a picture of it in order to remember how good it was and to remind myself that I needed to go to Italy at some point to eat more of what seems to be the best food ever.

Tonight we met up with a friend at a pub in the center of the city to listen to a trad session (traditional music session). This was the first one I've been to so I have no idea what to compare it to, but the scene at the pub was really chill and fun. There was this bike mounted up on the wall on one side, and then the entire pub was covered with pictures of famous singers, players, and random stuff I didn't recognize. I took a video clip especially for Laura and Dad since I know this is where you'd be if you were here...

RAG week

2008-01-28T02:31:00.000-08:00

Note: This blog entry is mostly just going to be pictures. I'm including a lot of excess commentary only because I don't want to just throw a bunch of pictures up. If a closer look to a specific picture is desired, just click on it and it will enlarge.

This last week was RAG week. It stands for I think 'raise and give' as in give/raise money for charities, but mostly it was just a glorified party week at UCC. No one went to their classes (except of course being the excellent student I am, I went to mine... and then got annoyed by like wednesday that no one else was there so then I finally gave in). Along with poor class attendance, RAG week was an opportunity for all the students to hang out at the on-campus pubs and listen/dance to the daily DJ competitions, and then go out at night to the daily events held around town that were hosted by the students' union. I never made it to the campus pub during the weekday afternoons because the lines (no one calls them 'lines' here- everyone says 'queues') outside were pretty hardcore and I never got motivated enough to stand outside in the rain for an hour to get in. We went out a lot at night though to pubs, which were also whoa crowded, and then on Thursday we went out to the final event held for RAG week which was a costume ball at Cork's City Hall. This band called 'Future Kings of Spain' played and they were pretty good, but they were a little screamo. My roommates and I dressed up- Kym was a pirate and Johnny was a German soccer player. I just wore a dress because I didn't have any costumes lying around my apartment and I didn't really want to go buy one. It was a good night though.

Sunday we went hiking again and it was beautiful. We went to a place called Mahon Falls (I think) but the waterfall was just at the beginning. After about 15 minutes of climbing up right next to the waterfall, we passed it and then it just became another mountain hike. Except this time the weather was completely perfect. Not only was it not raining but it was also very sunny with an incredible blue sky. The hike itself was kind of hard, as usual, only because it was another mountain and kind of muddy again. Only this time it wasn't like bog-mud-water, so it didn't seem so bad. We ate lunch at this overhang cliff, which also had a really nice view. Actually I'm not going to lie. The entire hike had good views.

the bog

2008-01-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

bog [bog, bawg] –noun

1.	wet, spongy ground with soil composed mainly of decayed vegetable matter.

Bog of Death [uphill and downhill] -noun
1. Sunday's hike.

I have found that the easiest (though very cliché) way to begin a speech, paper, toast, etc. about something that really has no easy beginning is to just Webster (or in this case, dictionary.com) it. There really is no easy way to describe Sunday's hike. It was either one of the best or worst times I've ever had hiking. At about 11:30 AM Sunday afternoon, when we had stopped after about 2 hours of hiking for a lunch break by this large rock (trying to somehow shield ourselves from the downpour of mist), and when I found out that we only hiked about 1/3 of the total distance, I would have easily chosen it as one of the worst times hiking. About an hour later, completely soaked due to the constant mist and steady faceplants and backslides down the muddy slopes of the Bog of Death, I looked over at my roommate Kym who was hiking with me. I must have looked completely miserable because she started laughing, which caused me to start laughing too and I realized that I still had like 2 more hours to go and I might as well just start having fun. So the rest of the hike wasn't actually too bad and then that night when I thought back on it I realized that it might have been one of the hardest hikes I've been on but that I definitely wanted to go back this Sunday for another one.

So what made the hike so hard? The fact that it was raining the entire time, therefore causing the bog we were hiking through to turn into a muddy, wet mountain, and therefore covering the entire mountain in a heavy mist so you had no idea what was more than about 20 feet in front of you. Kym, Johnny (2 of my roommates) and I were in a group of about 6 people. One of which was the group leader, equipped with a map and a compass. I have never been hiking before where there was no trail. At all. We just climbed up mountains (sometimes with all fours) and across mountains and down mountains, following after a guy with a compass, hoping he knew where he was going. All along the way, we were trying to not faceplant into bog water, grass, mud, thorns, and sheep poop. Except we all fell. A lot. Especially this one guy who didn't have on the right boots and tore his hiking pants completely open within like 1 hour of hiking, so he had to finish the last 4/5 hours of the hike with mostly just his boxers and one leg of a hiking pant. Johnny was wearing just his Sambas since he didn't have hiking boots here, so he too was having a hard time not falling when we were climbing down the Muddy Bog Mountain. It also didn't help anything that every hundred feet or so we'd come across a sheep skeleton or partial skeleton from an unlucky (or lucky depending on your view of the hike) sheep that died while on the mountain. Once we passed by this really deep boggy spot that would probably be over my head if I stepped into it and we saw this dead sheep floating inside down below. It'd probably been there for several years, preserved indefinitely inside the bog. At one spot in particular, at the top of the highest mountain, sheep skulls were everywhere. It kind of felt like the Elephant Graveyard in the Lion King. Only with sheep. By the time we finished the hike (I think in total it was about 14 kilometers?) I was so happy to be back on the bus, even though we all smelled kind of boggish.
Despite the whoa uncomfortableness of the hike, looking back it actually was a lot of fun. We had a really funny group who kept the moral high. Our group leader was Mr. Optimism and kept chatting away about how we, for example, only had 2 mountains or so left to hike. Also, the guy who ripped his pants open was really funny as well and kept cracking jokes the whole time. So, like I said earlier, I ended up having a good time and I am planning on going back next week.

---

Saturday was a big day too for rugby. Munster, the rugby team that Cork is affiliated with, had a big game against the London Wasps. We spent the entire day at the pub, first watching a big soccer game with Manchester United winning, and then watching the Munster game (Munster won). At the end of the ruby game, still not really having any idea how rugby was played, I came to 3 conclusions...

1. the ball can be kicked forward, but has to be tossed sideways or backwards
2. rugby players are the largest, most muscular people I've ever seen in my entire life
3. rugby fans are intense.

shepherd's pie

2008-01-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

For the past few days the weather here has been so nice. I know that me saying this will mean that it will pour tomorrow but honestly the weather here right now is perfect. It's cold and you need a scarf and jacket, but its perfect weather to walk around in. I went shopping yesterday to celebrate the nice weather and bought a pair of black boots with heels and a really nice wool coat, both of which were whoa on sale and I ended up getting them both really cheap. ish. I mean, it is Ireland and the euro-dollar conversion is a bit steep. But whatev.

The other night a group of us got together to go out to our favorite pub, which is a few blocks down from our house. I love the pub scene here. Everyone is really friendly and chill and every once in a while you end up at a pub where live music is being played. I think next week sometime I'm going to go hunt down a live session.

Last night my roommate and I went to this fitness class offered at the gym. It was pretty fun but mostly it just involved jumping around awkwardly to sweet 80s dance music. What was really awkward, though, was that directly on the other side of our huge wall-sized window was the rugby team practicing outside. So while it was fun to watch the rugby team practice, I'm sure they were more amused by watching a huge group of girls making a fool out of ourselves in time to rhythmic dance tunes.

Today for lunch my roommate and I went to a nearby pub that serves homemade food for pretty cheap. I got Shepherd's pie, which I'm pretty sure is a traditional Ireland/England/UK dish. I'm kind of in love with it right now. Apparently it's like minced meat inside? I have no idea what that means or what it was, but it was ground/corned beefish? No idea but it was so good. I went and googled an Irish food website and got a recipe that I thought sounded like the one I ate and I'm putting it below. When I come home I think I'll cook it and see if it tastes right but the recipe looks pretty good so I'm guessing it's probably pretty close.

1lb Minced Lamb or Beef
1-1½lb Mashed Potatoes
½ pint Stock
1 Onion
1 Large Carrot (Optional)
2oz Cheddar Cheese (Optional)
Cornflour
Salt and Black Pepper

Pre-heat oven to 180°C: 350°F: Gas 4.
Finely chop the onion and dice the carrot, if used.
Fry minced meat until lightly coloured and remove from the pan and drain well.
Add the onion and carrot, cooking gently until the onion is transparent and season to taste.
Return the meat, add the stock.
Add a little cornflour mixed with a few drops of water, stirring well.
Bring to the boil and stir until thickened.
Transfer the mixture into a casserole dish.
Cover the mixture with an even layer of mashed potato.
Cover and bake for 30 - 40 minutes.
Uncover and sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for a further 15 minutes.
Alternatively, bake for 30 - 60 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle with grated cheese and place under a very hot grill.

Serves: 4-6

Tonight I'm going rock/wall climbing at the campus gym with the Mountaineering club. Apparently this Sunday we're going hiking somewhere with waterfalls so as long as I can get myself out of bed at 730 I'll go and take probably take way too many pictures (weather permitting).

and classes begin

2008-01-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

Well there is really not that much to update. We've been going out to different bars and pubs- one had a live band that played cover songs like Green Day and Snow Patrol and they were really good and friendly and Madison and I talked to them a little bit before the show. Then an hour and a half later the pub/live concert venue turned into a dance club and we danced to songs ranging from 'Build Me Up Buttercup' (is that even the title) to 'Gimme More' by Britney Spears. Apparently she has taken over the entire world.
I've been getting to know my roommates more and they all are really cool. Since it rains all the time here we've been having movie nights every few nights since we can't really afford to go out every night. The other night we made scones (right) and watched Wedding Crashers upstairs in room 7, which is pretty much our party room. And then last night we all made dinner and then watched the Notebook. Friday night we went to another club which was called the Qube- where all the international students go on Friday nights for a free pint and music. One of my roommates who is German taught us their version of 'quarters' which is different than the American one (left). We spent about an hour trying to toss quarters into cups before we left for the Qube, which meant that we were late and didn't get the free pint but we still had a really fun time.

So as far as classes go- here are the ones I'm taking as of right now...
1. Women in Early Modern Europe- taught by this nice woman and the class is full of girls (obviously) and then a few kind of creepy guys who are most likely taking the class because they assumed they would have a good guy/girl ratio. Kind of like why I was an engineer at one point. But not as creepy.
2. Human Nutrition in the Developing World- taught by this guy who looks like a 50 year old version of Albert Einstein and who hasn't changed his outfit all week. Other than that, though, he seems really smart and he's very interesting so that class should be pretty good.
3. Nutrition and Toxicology- taught by Albert also
4. Introduction to Irish Traditional Music- we spent the first class just listening to different types of fiddles, but all the songs were really good and I think this one will be one of my favorite classes. Our essays in that class have to come from experiences going to live concerts/bands around the area and apparently this is the season for music festivals.
5. Introduction to Irish History- not much to be said for this one.
6. Contemporary International Issues- may or may not take this because the guy who teaches it is kind of intense/bordering crazy. Its either this one or this other class taught by this old man who just reads out of a textbook he wrote for the 2 hours. Both sound equally thrilling so it's really just going to be a matter of closing my eyes and picking one.

I'm planning on joining the Mountaineering club here which meets every Sunday to go on hikes around Ireland. I was going to go today but we woke up at like 7 and it was pouring so we vetoed this plan. They also meet on Wednesdays to go rock climbing at the campus gym and then to the pub afterward. I'm also thinking about joining Amnesty International but it conflicts with one of my classes so we'll see.

I can't believe I've been here over a week. I'm kind of getting used to living here and its starting to feel like home already.

kissing the blarney stone

2008-01-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

So this morning my plan was to wake up and walk to the market and buy some fresh food for dinner tonight. But when I woke up this morning it was raining (again) so instead I decided to cancel said plans and go back to sleep. Therefore it will probably be eggs and bread yet again. One of these days I will buy an umbrella that works. Or just get used to the idea that it rains all the time.
Yesterday, on the other hand, was really sunny and nice so we decided to go to the Blarney Castle, which was about 10/15 minutes away by bus. The Blarney Castle was pretty amazing. We couldn't believe how green everything was. Everyone always says that Ireland is green, but you can't really get a sense of it until you see it. I think the fact that it was really sunny helped, but we all went camera happy.
Quick history fact: "Queen Elizabeth I is credited with introducing the word 'blarney' to the English language. Her emissary, Sir George Carew, was charged with persuading Cormac Teige McCarthy to abandon his ancient rights during negotiations of the takeover of the Blarney Castle. But every time that Carew tried, he was met with long and eloquent protestations of loyalty and honeyed flattery of the queen- but also with no agreement. In frustration, Elizabeth I exclaimed, 'This is all Blarney. What he says he never means.' And a new word was born."
-a post outside the Blarney castle and, of course, Wikipedia

According to the legend, kissing the Blarney Stone grants the gift of eloquence. For those who perhaps don't buy this story only need to read this plaque posted inside the castle-->
(Rather than typing the whole thing out, if you click on the image, it enlarges) Actually the only reason I took a picture of Winston was because that might be the creepiest drawing of him I've ever seen but it does serve as pretty good proof of the stone's effectiveness. In order to kiss the Blarney stone, you had to climb up this really high, winding staircase that seemed to be built for a small child. Once at the top, we all stood in line for our turn at the stone. Luckily this guy was there who was from Blarney and he told us how far to bend backwards in order to kiss it since the old man that held us in place while we leaned back didn't really seem to care one way or another. Then again, if I had his job I probably wouldn't either.

Me kissing the stone:

orientation and rain

2008-01-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

So it rained today and my jeans got completely soaked. As if on the way to class I spotted a nearby pond and took a quick swim, got out, and then proceeded to carry on with my day. Halfway through the afternoon I just gave up on the idea of an umbrella and just accepted the fact that my pants were now permanently adhered to my legs.

Last night Madison (another NCSU exchange student) and I went to a pub for the first time. We picked one that was close to my house and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We made friends with the bartenders and ended up getting a free drink on the house which was pretty sweet. I had my first official Guinness of Ireland, which I was not expecting to be good at all because I have tried the ones back home and its like drinking tar. Or tar flavored syrup. Turns out, though, that Guinness in Ireland is whoa different and was actually really good. Who knew. I also met 2 more roommates who happened to be at the same pub that night- a couple that will be living in the upstairs room of our house.

Yesterday and today we went through the UCC orientation where I got an official UCC student ID card and learned that the registration process would be as one professor called it "organized chaos." Therefore, I have not registered for classes yet and won't until next week around the 16th I think. Basically we just show up at the classes we want to take on Monday, test it out for a bit, and then decide later if it is a class that we actually want to take. Makes sense I guess but I'd rather just use PackTracks and know in like 5 minutes whether or not I'm taking 'Music in the Films of Stanley Kubrick' for example.

We also got phones today at this cellphone store, where the salesclerk proceeded to sing me a rendition of the SNL skit when I asked him if they had any phone-in-a-box's. On the way home, we stopped at a local Fish and Chips restaurant and had an amazing yet whoa greasy meal that managed to soak through 2 layers of paper onto the table. You can't really tell from the picture, but the fish was huge. I could only eat half of it and stuck the other half in the refrigerator so tomorrow I can play a game called 'is fried food edible the day after'.

Me and Madison in front of the UCC campus:

first day.ish

2008-01-02T08:49:00.001-08:00

So first of all, I would just like to say that Hannah is responsible for this blog. Seeing as how I'm not a blogger. Or an artismypeacie. Or at least not an authentic one. So honestly I have no idea how updated this thing will be but I'm going to give it a shot for the benefit of parentals and friends who want to know what's going on in Ireland while I'm away...

Airplane ride: 3 stops: RDU -> Washington DC -> London -> Cork
Rides were smooth, easy and I didn't really get lost too bad. On my 7 hour flight to Heathrow I watched Ratatouille and talked to the girl next to me who managed to make it the whole flight without needing to ever get up so I kept having to ask her to move so I could use the bathroom.
I was able to have a pretty sweet 4 hour layover in Heathrow where I just stared at the guy in front of me because I had nothing else to do. Turns out he was a grad student in Ireland and he told me Cork was a really nice city so that was good.

Cork, the city.
Rory and Sarah picked me up from the airport which was really helpful and they dropped me off at my house (below). I had to wait a little while for the manager of the house to give me key but he seemed really nice. It's a 8 bedroom house and I share it with 1 guy, 4 girls, and a married couple. I think. I met 2 of my roommates so far and they seem pretty nice. The rest of them are still on winter vacation and will be back later. My house is really nice. There's a kitchen downstairs which is cute and big and then there are 8 bedrooms. I got to choose between this big room downstairs and a small one upstairs, so I chose the upstairs one because it seemed really cozy and it had a really pretty view (right). That night I ate dinner at Rory's house and it was perfect timing because I realized I had no food whatsoever, nor did I have normal essentials like toilet paper. But his family was really nice and it was good to be able to feel at home somewhere.

Today I woke up at like noon and went exploring. I bought some groceries at a local market. The market alone was so fun. It felt very European, and very non-Harris Teeterish. There were different areas for different fresh food- it kind of smelt weird because of all the fresh fish but I ended up buying fruit, bread, and eggs all from different vendors. I'm excited about the eggs because it looked like everything at the market came in that day so they should be better than Food Lions. I then wandered around the city some more and decided that I am going to really like it here. Everyone is so friendly- some old man who was in one of the food shops where I bought some peanut butter caught up to me outside and told me how peanut butter was good for the heart and that he hoped I had a nice day. And then he kept on walking. Everyone has really fun accents and that fact alone makes everyone more interesting than normal people at home.
I had put together a somewhat European looking outfit (skinny jeans, fake Uggish boots, down/hood vest, and a scarf) so I would blend in sans North Face and it worked because every single girl I passed had on pretty much exactly what I was wearing. Which was weird but whatever.
I really really like it here. I was in a good mood on the way home and stopped by a little bookstore and bought Pride and Prejudice because our house doesn't have TV and the lame copyright laws don't let me stream TV shows from abc or nbc.com since I am not in the United States so I decided I needed something to do. It hasn't started raining yet but I'm expecting it to come soon.

Streets in Cork- outside my house: