Top Things to Do in Dublin

After being here in Dublin for 3 and a half months, I've found a lot of things I like to do. Ireland is a wonderful country and there is always something going on. Given, I'm not the most exciting person but a lot of simple things really make me happy here.

I like going on long walks throughout Dublin and seeing everything that is around here. I like walking around until I get lost and finding out new roads, new parts of town, new places to shop. It's fun and exciting to discover new parts of the city. Though finding out how to get home is not always easy. I don't have a very good sense of direction so I usually have to ask people how to make it back to my part of town...

I like going to the parks in the city. It doesn't get that warm here, but it has been in the high 50's lately. I like going to the park and finidng a bench to sit on and read a book or do some work. It's very relaxing and the parks here are beautiful.

One of my favorite things I like to do is to go shopping. There are some great places to shop in Dublin. I love going up to Grafton Street, a walking only street, and just looking. It's too expensive to buy some of the top end items they have on Grafton Street. If you walk up a little further, there is another street, O'Connell Street. The side streets are also walking only and they have great stores to shop at. Lastly, there is a big mall that, although I've only been there once, I loved going to. I hope I find time to go back before I'm done here. There are tons of different stores here that you wouldn't find in the US, so it's very interstesting to shop here.

I like going to the tourist and historical spots in Dublin as well. Such as going to the Guinness Factory, the Jameson Distillery, the Dublin Castle and other tourist spots. It's fun to just... be that embarrassing, random tourist for a few hours even though I have been living here for a while.

Since I live towards the city center I'm about 3 miles away from the University I am attending. In order to get to class I bike to the university every day. I love waking up and biking to and from class. It's a lot of fun and I get good exercise in. Because I'm too cheap to join a gym, I'm really happy that I get to bike.

I also like finidng new places to eat in Dublin. I am a big food fanatic and so I love trying and eating great tasting food. There are a lot of Irish Pubs that I like checking out. I have yet to eat a bad meal here, every restaurant has excellant food. Their seafood is also amazing.

There really isn't anything I dislike about Dublin, and Ireland in general. So it's hard to pick my absolute favorite things to do. But these are defenitly the most relaxing, which is something I really enjoy. I really like going around Ireland and visiting different places as well. This country has so much to offer and is absolutly beautiful. I love being here, and it's going to be very hard to go back to America and accept that I probably won't be coming back here for a long, long time.

A Haircut in Dublin!

Something I love to do is get a haircut. When I want to either let go of something, or start fresh, or try and move forward with something I feel the strange desire to get my hair cut. Depending how drastic my transition is depends on how short I go. However, I always get my hair cut at this one salon back in New Jersey. I never found a place to go to in DC, and I am really iffy about who cuts my hair. I HAD to get it done in Dublin though, it just couldn't wait. I asked a bunch of people where I should get it cut, and one of my friends suggested Toni and Guy. Though after looking up their prices, I had to say no. As a result, I kept my search going. The internet wasn't really helpful so I asked another one of my friends where I should go. He said I could get it done for free at this one salon up by Grafton Street. However, it was only open on Mon - Thurs (it was Friday and frankly I couldn't wait that long) and it is done by students. So again, I wasn't sure what I should do.

The following morning I ended up getting dressed and went walking around looking for salons. I was on grafton street when one caught my eye. It was 20% off, and it was packed. It looked like a really good salon. Of course, I'm terrible with decisions, so I made a phone call and then decided yeah, okay, I'll get it cut here: now. I was able to get fit in a half hour after I went in and I was golden.

Everyone there was really good at what they do, and I giggled a bit when I heard her irish accent and she told me the cut would "be lovely". I'm not sure why some of the things they say make me laugh, they aren't THAT strange.

After being worried about the way she described how my hair would look, she explained the cut to me a second time, and I became okay, even excited, about it. I let her do her magic, and I must say I think she ended up doing a fabulous job; I couldn't be happier. I love the new style and I love the length. I feel a lot lighter now. I guess I should try new salons more often! I'll have to find one in DC next!

Guinness and Jameson

Over Spring Break I did two tourist things I never would have done if Darby wasn't visiting me. We both went to the Guinness factory and the Jameson Distillery. The first one we went to was Guinness. It was a little pricey, but it was a lot of fun. I didn't know anything about beer so being able to learn how they made Guinness was really interesting. The tour was a self guided tour and you just read signs and listened to videos to find out about the beer. Now, I've always hated beer so when we got to the tasting room, I grabbed the quarter pint for Darby. I had no intention of drinking it at all. Finally he convinced me to try it, so I did. I was SHOCKED. I actually liked how it tasted. It was really, really cold and really, really good. I ended up finishing my quarter pint. But when we got to the top of the tour, the entire pint we got wasn't as tasty. I had a little bit and ended up giving the rest to my friend to drink. He gladly accepted. Though, Guinness is really thick and filling, so it took him a while to finish it.

The second touristy place we went was Jameson. I've never had whiskey before in my life, so I was pretty nervous when we got there. I ended up buying chocolate with whiskey in it and a cute little glass though before the tour began. This tour actually had a tour guide and she showed us through all of the rooms. I got picked as a whiskey taster, so I had to drink three different types of whiskey at the end of the tour. When we got to the tasting area, I was a little disappointed. Everyone got nice glasses of mixed drinks. Darby got whiskey and ginger ale, and I really wanted that! But after I tried the three different whiskey's at the tasting (Jameson, a Scottish one, and Jack Daniels) the tour guide brought us a glass with another shot of Jameson whiskey in it, and we were allowed to go to the bar to get ginger ale or some other drink to mix in it. Surprisingly, I really liked the Jameson whiskey. Jack Daniels was terrible though.

Being a taster!

I'm glad I got to visit these two places. Sure they are huge tourist traps, but I feel like this was something I needed to do while I was here. Only 2 months left in Dublin..

Paris and Barcelona

So the second half of my spring break was to be spent traveling in Paris and Barcelona. My friend, Darby, was traveling with me on this four day trip. We were to to leave on Saturday morning really early so we had all day Saturday and Sunday in Paris. Then we had all day Monday and Tuesday and Barcelona. Then we would fly home Tuesday night and be in Dublin in time for St. Patrick's Day. This was the original plan, but of course, plans change...

Friday night came and my friend had a little too much fun at the bar, which resulted in him being really sick and really drunk when we had to leave for our flight on Saturday morning. Somehow when he got sick, he felt something hanging in the back of his throat. Assuming it was food, he tried to get it out with his finger. Unfortunately for him, it was not food, but part of his throat had elongated and was now touching his tounge. Which made it extremely uncomfortable. It was hard to swallow and it was getting hard to breathe. He wanted to go to a doctor, so of course I started worrying and got a bit freaked out and wanted to bring him to one asap. We left the terminal and made our way to airport information. A paramedic came and eventually we were sitting in an abulance to get checked out in the hospital. Lucky for him, he got a shot to take away the nausea. He started feeling better after that, but the shot was in his arse, so he complained about that the rest of the day. After he was able to see the doctor, it turns out the cause of his throat was he drank too much alcohol (surprise) and because of that, his throat swelled and got irritated. It could have been from the Guinness.

So after that exciting beginning to our day, and missing our flight, we decided to go back to the house and sleep. After resting and debating if we should take the trip or not, we decided to give it a try. Fortunately, we were able to catch a later flight out of Dublin to Paris, at 7:40 pm for Ryanair's wonderful "missed flight" fee. By midnight that night, we finally found where we were staying in Paris (thanks to my friend, I just got us lost...). Needless to say it was a long day.

We woke up early the next morning to walk around and see the sights in Paris. I have to say, Paris is beautiful. The buildings are all so extravigant and I absolutly loved them. It would have been a little nicer if it was warmer, but I'll take what I can get. We saw the typical touristy sights but I think my favorite was the Eiffle Tower. During the day it wasn't anything too special, but we went back at night and it was amazing. It was fabulous to look at. I would love to go back and see it again.

So pretty

One funny aspect was Darby got haggled. We were walking down the street and this guy picked up a ring and stopped us. He asked if it was ours, and we said no. His fingers were too big for the ring and so he gave it to my friend. He started walking away, and then came back and asked if we had any spare change for food. Unfortunately, Darby moved his hand out of his pocket so the man heard the jingling of change. He gave the man about 2 euro. After looking at the ring closer, we decided it was probably brass and useless. But it was funny to say the least.

Ring fail.

We had to wake up really early to catch our flight to Bareclona the next morning. We got there in plenty of time, but waking up so early was really killing us. When we got there, we found where we were staying but then we decided that our main goal was to find food. We ended up in this area of little shops and resturants, and we found this hole in the wall resturant. It was the BEST food I've ever had. The meal made everything worth it. It was so good. I was shocked. All we could think about the rest of that day and the next was going back to this restaurant. (When we got home we realized it was Indian food, not Spanish food. Interesting!.. ) Then we walked around La Rambla, a famous street in Barcelona. It was pretty interesting, until we got to the area where they sold like... pets, maybe just animals is a better word? They had chickens and rabbits and turtles... and MICE. Seeing the mice and rats killed me so we swiftly walked away...

BEST MEAL EVER

The night wasn't as exciting. Since we were both so tired we took a 4 hour nap, then found dinner. And dinner was a let down to say the least. All we wanted was the food from earlier...

The next day we had to check out of our hotel at 12 which unfortunately meant that we had to carry all of our luggage with us all day. We ended up going to the beach and then taking this lift up to a mountain. The view from the mountain (and the lift) was amazing. It was so awesome seeing Barcelona from such a high angle. We only bought one way though, so after walking around for about 3 hours we realized that the only way down, unless we wanted to pay again, was to actually walk down the entire mountain. It took us another 40 minutes to walk down, but we found a metro and decided to go back to our little resturant and shop area. We went through this maze and tried to find our restruant from the day before. We walked around for about 20 minutes and ended up finding it... but it was closed! We were pretty depressed to be honest...

View from the mountain!

After that sad event we both made our way back to the bus station and took the hour long ride to the airport. Darby got a big mac and I got a crab sandwich to pass the time. We had to wait 2 hours, and then our flight got delayed an hour. We were so antsy to get home at this point. Eventually we were finally home in Dublin and could call it a night. Just to wake up the next morning for St. Patricks Day. Overall, the trip was a ton of fun, and I'm so glad that we went. The extra fee for the late flight was worth it and seeing those two cities was amazing.

Berlin

Traveling to Berlin was great. I wasn't really looking forward to the trip before I left, but it really turned around. I was traveling with 5 friends and it was technically a class trip for the UCD engineering school. I'm not an engineer but I tagged along. We had a really early flight, 6 20 am, and I slept the entire way on the plane. Then, getting to the hostel took forever. We spent a really long time trying to figure out the train tickets and everything of that sort. We were seriously at a loss. After traveling another 2 hours by train, we finally reached our hostel. The Odessy. It was a cute place and it had character. We even had our own room. We were to stay there for the first night and the other three nights we had to move hostels to, The Generator. This is where all of the Irish kids were staying for the trip.

The first day wasn't anything to exciting. We were exhausted from traveling and it was freezing, so we decided to just eat and chill out. We took a nap and then we decided we wanted to go out for the night. We drank a bit and went out to a bar for happy hour. I had my first cosmopolitan! After that we headed to a dance club, The Matrix. It was crazy. There were a ton of people dancing and there was even a cage with a dancer inside it. It was quite a site. By the end of the night we were all thorougly exhasuted. It was an interesting night to say the least.

The second day we tried to be a little more adventerous. We switched hostels and decided to go walk around the city center. We made our way towards the Berlin wall and saw the beautiful artwork of the east side gallery. I also got my passport stamped! Checking that out was really interesting. After that, we checked out the TV tower and this really big mall. Unfortunately, everything inside the mall was closed because it was a sunday. I was so sad. That night I decided I didn't want to go out a second night in a row so I chilled and took it easy. I went out to dinner with Taylor at this Italian resturant, and HA! I got my food served to me in the shape of a heart. It was epic. The waiter was really funny and my food was very tasty. It was a pretty fun day.

This is a picture of the Generator. It's huge!

Berlin Wall

The third day we decided to check out the third reich. We saw where Hitler's Bunker used to be and we saw other important building relating to the holocaust. Also, we saw the reichminster and the gate. Both were good finds. But I think the best find, was finding a VAPIANOS! I was SO excited. I haven't had Vapianos since December and I was really craving it. We ate their for lunch and I got my usual dish of spicy crawfish and lobster sauce. It was so satisfying. After this we were all very exhausted and decided to nap again. When we were hungry, we went back to the Italian resturant we were at the night before. This time, my food got served with a rose carved from a tomato on the top. I laughed. After drinking a bit at dinner (I had my first Sex on the Beach! YUM!) we went out on a short pub crawl. Unfortunately, in Germany's pubs, you can smoke. At the end of the night I reeked of smoke and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't do laundry and I didn't have extra jeans or other clothes to change into. So I was forced to smell of smoke for the next day and a half..

My LOVE!

And this was my dinner, with a rose made from a tomato!

The fourth day was the most adventerous, and the saddest. Most of the Irish kids left, and 3 left from the group I traveled with. So me and two others made our way to Sauchsenhausen, the Concentration Camp Memorial. After some mix ups with google maps, we finally arrived there. It was very powerful, and very scary. Actually being there made things really difficult and it was hard to be in some of the buildings and read some of the information. A lot of it was restored for the memorial, but some of the original floors and walls were still there. It was pretty scary. We saw the gas chambers and read stories about events members of the concentration camps had witnessed. We were only there for two hours, but it really made the day sad.

Where they burned the dead at the concentration camp...

After that we went back to the Italian resturant one LAST time. (The food was good, so we kept wanting to go back!) My meal was in the shape of a heart again and it was very tasty. That night we just chilled out at the hostel and talked with some people. And now I'm spending some time on the computer. Oops. Overall I thought Berlin was really interesting. My first impression of it was pretty low, there was graffitti everywhere and it seemed pretty run down. Then I realized we were staying in East Berlin. West Berlin is a lot more built up with a lot less vandalism, overall it was just more modern. The area where the concentration camp is more what I expected Germany to look like. The buidlings were cuter and the roads were made out of stone. But during the train ride to that area there were houses that were no bigger than a small apartment. I'm not sure if I can even call them houses, maybe just small shacks. So there is just a lot of diversity on how everything looks.

View of the TV tower from my hostel

We flew home today. This week should prove to be exciting and very interesting. Hopefully it goes well one way or another. I'm on my way to Paris on Saturday and Barcelona on Monday. Then St. Patricks day is on Wednesday. It should be a fast paced second half of spring break to say the least. I'm anxious and excited. =)

The Mouse

So I have a huge fear of a few things in life. 1. Heights 2. Tight, enclosed spaces 3. Things that crawl.

A mouse appeared in my house last night, and while it may not be a big deal to you. It freaked me out to no end. It all started last night (this morning?) around 12 am. I heard a scream upstairs but my roommate and I paid it no mind. We were minding our own business until all of a sudden I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. All I could think about was... Did I actually see something? Please say I didn't... I stared for a minute and yep, I defenitly saw something. A little mouse. Great. Of course I screamed and it ended up crawling under my bed. My roommate and I tried to get the guy who lives in our house to get the mouse. He failed in every attempt. But apparently they thought that the mouse left the bedroom. That almost gave me some piece of mind for the up. I was up until 6:30 am and I originally had to wake up for class at 7:45. I made an executive decision before I fell asleep that I would NOT be waking up for my 9 am class. I switched off all of my alarms, but I couldn't find one of them. I decided to try to sleep and I would worry about it tomorrow.

At 7:45 am my alarm was blasting loud somewhere on the floor. Soon enough in my sleepy state, I realized that it was under my bed and I couldn't get to it. So I got out of bed and moved it so I could get to my phone. Well... I found my phone, but I also found the mouse... I freaked out once again and finally my roommate calmed me down. I decided to get ready really quickly and just rush to UCD to make my class. So now I'm stuck at school from 9 am - 7 pm and I hope to the lord that the mouse is no longer in my room when I return. I called my landlord after my class was over and apparently the pest control came and laid traps for the mouse. So now I can only wait and pray it will soon be gone... I hate mice.

London!

Thursday night we flew to London. The bus ride to the airport was about an hour long, and the flight was an hour. Same amount of time to get to an airport as it did to get to another country. I found this interesting. Immediately we noticed when we landed that even though London uses the pound, things just seemed a little cheaper here. The sandwich I bought in Dublin was 6 euro, and the sandwich I bought in London was 2.50 pounds. Though it might not be that much cheaper, I still felt better about myself.

The hostel was just what I expected. There were ten beds in my room and I was happy that the hostel owners were very informative and helpful. The name made me laugh though, Travel Joy Hostels. The only complaint I had was the showers.. My first shower turned off after 2 minutes and just wouldn't turn back on. So I had to finish my shower in the sink. The other two I took, one was alright, but the last one... the last one was FREEZING. I was cold the rest of the day! Breakfast was included with the hostel which was nice. Cereal and toast, which was all I really needed. So it worked out really well. A strange thing about this hostel was, it was a hostel, a bar, but also.. it served thai food. It seemed like an interesting choice but the food was really, really good!

The first day we traveled around and took a ton of pictures. We saw Big Ben, Parliment, National Gallery, and other really touristy spots. Our group made an executive decision not to pay 17 pounds for the London Eye and ridiculous amounts for other touristy things. So we just did a lot of walking, and my feet really hurt by the end of the day. We also checked out Camden Street for shopping. It was intense! I would love to take a day trip and just shop there, it was so amazing. The largest street market in Europe really lives up ti its name. There was so much I wanted to buy! But.. I'm cheap, and everything MUST fit in your one carry on bag for Ryanair. My bag was already filled so there was no room to buy anything else. I was quite sad faced.

Our last stop of the day was Primrose Hill. We just walked by it and noticed there was a huge park. I'm so glad we went in and climbed the hill. The view was amazing, probably as nice as the London Eye (But free!!) The pictures were great. One thing I loved about the park was the dogs. So many people just brought their dogs and let them run wildly around. I miss my dog.. =( We stayed there for about 20 minutes and then went to find a bus. It was an hour long bus ride but we made it back. That night we just relaxed.

The view from Primrose Hill

The second day we got a nice and early start. We got to see Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's Cathederal. I saw the road "Fleet Street" and this made me so excited. I couldn't stop thinking about Sweeney Todd! The millenium bridge was also pretty cool. But I must say, the London Bridge was a huge let down. Not far from it was the Tower Bridge and it was so much more impressive, so we decided to just go there and not stop at the London Bridge.

Tower Bridge!

I finally got to do 2 things I've wanted to do for a long time. See a show in London's West End, and see Chicago. And I got to do both that night so it made me really excited. I'm so happy we went and it was a great end to the evening.

The last day we were there it rained. We were all pretty tired, but that day was the whole reason we came to London in the first place, to see a soccer game. It was Fulham vs. Birmingham. Now, I don't really care about sports so it didn't matter to me. But when we got there, we sat on the Fulham side. Everyone around us got REALLY into the game. So of course I had to as well. It became really, really exciting. Especially when we won on a penalty kick. Everyone was screaming and jumping up and down. I'm really glad we got to go.

Soccer (football) game

The flight home was nothing too exciting, but my housemate had an exam that started an hour after we landed. It was certainly a race to the school after we got off the plane. The trip overall left me really exhausted but it was a ton of fun. I can't wait to go on my next one. Berlin in a week and a half! And after that France and Barcelona! I really want to travel more when I'm here, the flights are so cheap and I'll never get this chance again. I can't wait!

The Quest for a Bike

It takes me 10 - 15 minutes to walk to my bus stop every morning, depending how lazy I feel. And then I wait for however long it takes for the bus to appear, and take a nice 15 minute bus ride to school. This wouldn't be too bad if it didn't severely cut into my sleep time. Waking up at 7:15 for a 9 am class is ridiculous. One of my housemates bought a bike a few weeks ago, and he said that it only takes him 15 minutes to bike to the center of campus. When I heard this, I wanted a bike immediately. Also, if I biked to class, I'd get a 6 km bike ride in every day, which makes me think I'll be working out a bit! Also, the bus pass is expensive, 75 euro for a 30 day pass. I would need at least 2 more passes if I took the bus everyday, so I made up my mind. I needed a bike.

For better or for worse, I'm a very cheap person.

My house mate bought a new bike for 195 euro. There is no way I was going to spend that much so I looked on websites like gumtree and donedeal for ad's about people getting rid of used bikes. This search may have been more frustrating than it was worth, but I couldn't force myeslf to buy a bike for full price. On these websites some people would post their numbers, some would just be via email. I wasn't very comfortable actually calling people, so I would either email or resort to texting.

After two days of that I realized I wasn't actually getting anywhere, so I gave in and called some one about a bike I was interested in. A creepy sounding guy picked up and said we could meet later that night in the center of the city. This was great news for me, and I forced my guy housemate to come with me. I called the man when I was at the meeting spot, but I got no answer. I tried again, same thing. A few minutes later I got a text explaining that he didn't have the bike because his friend took it, but he would bring it to my house later if I wanted to still see it. I was creeped out enough, so I decided against it...

From then on I didn't call anyone about bikes. I was too sketched out. I stuck to email and texting. I had three other encounters with setting up a meeting time for a bike and being strongly disappointed when I would get a text a bit later saying they were sorry but the bike was sold. One of the times was probably my fault though, I tried to bargin with the girl... Let's just say I'm not very good at it. The search was not going well...

Just when I was about to give up, I looked once more on gumtree.ie and texted a girl about her bike. It was purple-pink... But we don't have to get into the color... She agreed to meet with me later that day. And unlike the other person I contacted, she actually came! I rode it to make sure it was working, and it came with a lock. The price was good, and substantially lower than 195 euro. I'm also hoping I can sell it back at the end of my stay. So now I am a proud owner of a bike! (Picture below, if you weren't sure...)

The First Week

The first week of classes is officially over and I must say, it's a lot different than GW. Classes here are set up where your end of the semester grade is determined mainly by the final. For each class the final is worth about 50 - 100% of your grade so, there is very little work assigned during the actual semester. Also, the grading scale is a bit different as well. A 78% > is an A+ and a 75% is an A. As a study abroad student, I need a C (which is a 50%) in order to recieve credit for the class. Compared to America's grading system, this should seem like it would be a breeze; however, apparently they grade a lot harder here. And with the final worth so much, I feel like this grading system is necessary if anybody is to pass these courses. Fortunately, it's a little bit different for me in the Computer Science program because I will have to be programming throughout the semester. Other than the computer science classes, there is very little upfront work. This also means that the students have to do a lot of work on their own time - they have to self study. Personally I'm a lot better at getting work done when I am told of the assignments I need to do, so this could be a quite a challenge for me.

Monday, January 18th was the first day of class. After having 1 of my 4 scheduled classes (the other three were labs that didn't occur on the first day) I found out that today was a party day for everyone at Unviersity College Dublin. Apparently the first Monday back at classes is called, "Black Monday" and everybody goes to the school pub and pubs / clubs in the city and they have a good time. After my entire house decided to go out, we made our way back to campus to see what was going on at the campus pub - it was packed. Tons of college kids filled the pub and everyone was drinking and dancing. (The picture is the line to get into the school pub) It was a lot of fun, and all my house mates seemed to have a good time. I was told that was as "exciting" as the on-campus pub will ever be, so it's good we went. However, from the few Irish students I've met, it seems they like to drink every night of the week. I don't think I can keep up with that... From going out only two nights I've already broken a ring Darby gave me for Christmas last year.

One of the interesting classes I have is Introduction to Computer Forensics. Something that made me laugh is the professor used the word 'twat' quite frequently in his lecture. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think 'twat' would be that acceptable in America. The first week of classes came to an end when this class was over and when it was done, I wanted to make my way over to Immigration. Garda, Ireland's police department, requires visitors to register with immigration if they will be staying a long period of time. So Friday I was on my way to go register when I got a message from my roommate saying not to bother, they already stopped letting people register for the day. Since I was already on my way over there, I decided to check out the shopping on O'Connell Street. After shopping for four hours I returned home empty handed. Needless to say, I was not pleased. The same routine occurred Saturday, but Sunday I walked home with a new pair of boots! I was thrilled!

Even though my shopping was a sucess, I still had to get to immigration. I decided I would miss my class Monday morning and just go and get it over with. I arrived around 8:40 am and was waiting in line for my ticket. When you get your ticket you sit around and wait for your number to be called. After it is called you show all your paper work, pay your 150 euro fee, and then wait around for your ID card to be made.

I was fourth in line for my ticket at 8:50 am when a man who worked there came around and said, "Anybody who is a student, please leave the queue. We do not register students until 9." (For anyone who doesn't know, the queue is another word for line here in Europe) I looked down at my phone and saw the time was 8:54. All of the student's loooked around at each other and clearly no one wanted to move. The man told us to leave again, and so we did. With all of the students out of the line, the queue shrank down to about 8 people. And 6 minutes later, the 60 students who were told to leave rushed back to get a spot in line. I ended up around 30th. Considering I had been fourth, I was a tad bit bitter.

Finally 2 and a half hours later I was registered and done with immigration. I jumped on a bus and headed to UCD for the second week of class.

Traveling Around!

January 9, 2010 I was to begin my mini journey to the country with my Ma. We made it out of Dublin (though it took a good 45 minutes to do so.. ) and drove to Killkenny for a timeshare we were going to stay at. We soon learned we were not in the right town, and we should be south of Kilkenny in Knocktopher. My Ma and I were seriously concerned that we wouldn’t be able to check in, or the time share didn’t even exist. Needless to say, we were more than thrilled when we got there and found out our place was gorgeous. We were in an old abbey, which is a castle like building, and the grounds were completely covered in snow, which made it an incredibly beautiful sight. At first we were staying in the complex not attached to the actual abbey (which is what the picture is) until the couple next door complained they had no hot water. The management's solution was to move the couple into the abbey itself. So... my Ma and I decided we should do the same. We wanted to stay in a castle!

This was the backyard of the abbey!

Everything is so white! (Unlike in DC where it turns brown...)

The first night we ate at a hotel in the little town of Knocktopher and that was all. But the next few days were a lot more exciting. Though it snowed, we braved the country roads (even though everyone said we were crazy to do such a thing, but an inch or two of snow isn’t really THAT terrible) and traveled around southern Ireland. I’m very greatful my Ma was with me, she made adjusting to a new country a lot easier than it would have been, and I wouldn’t have gotten such a great opportunity to travel around Ireland otherwise. We went through towns such as Waterford, Kilkenny, Wexford, Glendalough, Cashel, and many others.

This little waterfall is my favorite picture, but it certainly wasn't easy to get it. We drove right past it, and I screamed, "Ma! Go back, go back!!" So she backed up and brought us close to the mini waterfall. I jumped out of the car and went to go take a picture. As I was doing this, another car drove right by and the wheels sprayed up all the snow and dirt from the road... and it got all over me. That was splendid.. At least I got a good picture? Err...

We had a ridiculous incident while we were driving one of the days. On the map, I knew we needed to turn left to get to the town we wanted to visit that day, but after passing two roundabouts and driving a little bit longer, we weren’t seeing any turns… As a result, my Ma and I decided we should turn around and go back to the roundabouts. We saw that one of the roads that was gated off was now open, so we thought 'hey, this is the road we’re supposed to take.' Unfortunately for us, it was definitely not. The first warning sign for us was it was completely covered in snow. Very little traffic had been on this road at all. Then we noticed after about 15 minutes of driving. We had not passed a single car, and there wasn’t any cars behind us either. We realized then that we were on a road that was currently under construction and not completely finished. To make it worse, there was nowhere to turn around to go back to town. So… we turned around right then and there and drove the wrong way down the highway. Thankfully no cars came - no one saw. From there on we continued our travels....

One thing I noticed is there food is all really, really good. Some people say the food is bland, but there was not one thing I didn’t like eating while I traveled around. Given, a lot of it was seafood. But I was shocked I loved EVERYTHING. So that was a pleasant surprise! Seafood chowder, seafood sandwich, chicken sandwich, pasta and sauce, seafood pasta, a fish dinner… Given I love food... so maybe I was just happy to eat. But in America I always can find one dish I didn't enjoy THAT much. Here I have yet to find that...

All in all, we drove by the waterfront, the mountains, through small towns and even some cities.We took a lot of landscape pictures and a few pictures of the normal tourist attractions that we were supposed to see. And here is a picture of the signs for the roundabouts in Ireland. (There are a ton of them) Mainly though, we did a lot of scenic driving throughout Ireland, and I must say that I’m very glad we did. It was great to be able to see parts of Ireland other than Dublin.

A complete list of the order of my travels (and when):

Saturday, 9 Jan -

Kilkenny

Knoctopher

Sunday 10 Jan -

Waterford

Dunmore East (Had a fabulous cafe… I wish I could go back!)

Tramore

Waterford

Knoctopher

Monday 11 Jan -

Carrick-on-Suir

Clonmel

Cahir

Cashel

Rock of Cashel

Kilkenny

Tuesday 12 Jan-

Thomastown

Scenic road along the river Nore

New Ross

Wexford

Waterford

Sunday 17 Jan –

Wicklow (one of the most gorgeous views I’ve seen in Ireland came from Wicklow)

Brittas Bay

Arklow

Avoca

Glendalough

Dublin

Day 1

I flew to Ireland with my Ma on continental airlines January 7, 2010. The flight was to leave at 7:50 pm, we got there around 5. After a massively long line to check our baggage, we had our boarding passes and were ready to go. Security wasn’t an issue, but when we got to our gate, there was only a half hour until we were to board the plane. We almost switched our tickets to the next flight because we would receive 400 dollars each for traveling, but we decided against it when we found out the next flight would be the next day.

The plane ride was smooth, I watched “Up” (which probably wasn’t the best movie to watch on an airplane…) and reached a high score of 30,000 on bejeweled! I eventually tried to sleep, but when I closed my eyes, the lights went on and they started serving breakfast. I was okay with this, because I love food; however, the flight attendant accidently spilt an entire cup of orange juice all over me and my Ma. We weren’t exactly thrilled… Funny no doubt, but everything got really sticky…

We rented a car when we got to the Dublin airport. My Ma hasn’t driven on the left side of the road in a long time, so driving in Dublin was very difficult, especially since it was snowing. There usually isn’t any snow in Dublin, so most of the drivers were driving very haphazardly. Also, there isn’t a good system of street signs in Dublin. Sometimes there is one on a building, but sometimes there isn’t. To make it worse, sometimes the street you may be driving on changes names... multiple times. All of this together made our short drive to an office and to my house a lot longer than one would expect. It took us about an hour to get to an office to pick up my keys. But the 5 minute drive from the office to my house, took about an hour and a half… At least we made it eventually…

I have to say, the first day in Dublin was exciting, but also the hardest. I got a phone, and got settled in, but this is when it finally hit me that I was going to be living in a foreign country for four months. It was lucky I was so tired, otherwise I’m not sure I would have been able to sleep well that night.

my room before everything was unpacked...