I'm writing a paper right now, so obviously I need to procrastinate. I can't believe I'm coming home so soon! May 16th 10:30am I'm flying back! This has gone so fast, and yet I'm amazed at everything I was able to do in the months that I was here.
This summer looks like it's going to be amazing. I have a sweet internship in New York City working for KPMG, and I just found out that our week of training is in Anaheim, CA. An all expense paid week in California sounds great to me. I'm also excited about seeing the Swell Season from Once in concert as soon as I get back, and there's a Celtic Fesitval in NY that I want to go to at the end of the summer. Hopefully I'll also be able to visit Marisa in Martha's Vineyard at the end of summer again. And also, I'll be turning 21 a week after I get home (1 month from today!), which I'm sure will be fun, even though the whole "being able to drink" thing won't be as exciting for me.
On another note if you want to know anything about the Celtic Tiger ask me. I'm all about the Irish economy. And NO, it is not sustainable. Back to work...
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
A Sad Day
A sad day has come - the day that I finally have to start doing work after being on a 4 month vacation. Finals are right around the corner, and tomorrow is my last day of UCD classes. I have a 15 page paper due next week, another due May 6, and 5 final exams, all of which make up 95% of my grade since I've done nothing thus far. It's a little bit scary, but also sad that I have to find motivation that I've lost since leaving Notre Dame.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Kevin and Anthony's Visit
Kevin and Anthony came to Dublin early Saturday morning. Saturday was rough for them adjusting to the time difference, since they essentially missed a night’s sleep. I took them into the city and showed them the Grafton Street area. Then we went to Temple Bar and had lunch in Fitzsimon’s, my favorite place to get Beef and Guinness Pie. Then we took the bus to the Guinness Storehouse. That had a ridiculous line since it was a cold rainy Saturday afternoon, so we decided to do it another day. We took the bus back to campus and just hung around and I kept yelling at Kevin for sleeping.
The next day we went back to the Guinness Storehouse and bought our tickets ahead of time to cut the line. Before we went I showed them the circle thing with the drop of Guinness in it that was my ticket the last time I went, and I told them they would get one. Apparently a couple of weeks ago they switched to a regular paper ticket, so that was disappointing. The storehouse was cool as always and the gravity bar was fun. I think we had lunch at the Bank that day. That was their favorite bar in Dublin. It’s an old Victorian bank that was converted to a bar but left exactly the same. They really enjoyed the food there. We walked around O’Connell Street after that. That night we went to Temple Bar for drinks, and I liked the guy who was singing there since he did all my favorite pub songs plus Johnny Cash randomly.
On Monday we went out to Kilmainham Gaol, a famous jail in west Dublin. That is where the 1916 uprisers were executed and many other historical events happened there. It was also a location for many movies. It was cool to see, especially after all the Irish history I’ve learned. It was weird that our guide was the same guide I had at Dublin Castle when I went with Caity. After that we got fish and chips at Burdocks which is supposed to be the best in Dublin. Then went to the O’Connell house because I needed to register for Fall classes. That took much longer than I anticipated because I ended up on the phone with the registrar’s office for a long time because of a mistake in a class listing. After that we went to St. Stephens’ Green, which looked so beautiful with all of the flowers in bloom. We had dinner at a pub on Dame Street.
On Tuesday the boys went into the city by themselves while I studied for a quiz and packed. I met them at 5:00 to check into our hostel in Dublin. We were taking two train tours where we had to be at Heuston Station at 6:40am, and since buses don’t run until 6:30am, I decided to stay in the city rather then take a taxi all the way from campus. Next I went to Theology class. Afterwards Kelly and I met up with Kevin and Anthony and we went to Porterhouse.
The next morning we woke up at 5:30am for our tour. We walked to the train station, which took a solid 20 minutes since it is really west of the city centre. Then we had a 3 hour train ride to Cork. The train was very nice and new. When we got to Cork we transferred to a minibus and rode to Blarney. There we climbed to the top of Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney stone. Blarney castle was very cool – the stairs were very windy and the stairwells narrow, and you could go in any of the rooms you found. I felt badly for the older people on our tour and a man who was heavy because it was not easy to climb and some parts were extremely narrow.
At the top we laid down as an older man helped us slide back, grab the rails, lean down, and kiss the stone. It was pretty cool, and we got some great pictures. After that we went to a pub in Blarney for lunch and shopped at Blarney Woolen Mills. I got a Belleek claddagh frame for my parents for their anniversary, which was kind of a bad idea in hindsight since I had to travel the rest of the time with it.
Next we got back on the bus and headed to Cobh, going through the Cork city centre. Cork was a nice city. We randomly stopped at a graveyard because Bob wanted to show us where the people from the Lusitania were buried. Bob was our tour guide who was an old man completely full of blarney. I loved him and he was highly entertaining, but he didn’t add any information of value to the tour. It was funny at one point when he asked if people knew what blarney was and some man yelled out “Yeah, you’re full of it!”
We stopped in Cobh (pronounced Cove), which is a nice village on the east coast of Ireland. We went to a beautiful cathedral there, then a museum about the Queenstown story. It was basically about how Cobh was the major area of emigration, and that is where most people left for America. They talked about an American wake, which is also a great song by the Elders so I liked it. We wandered around Cobh for a little while before catching the train back to Dublin.
On the train back Anthony made friends with a couple sitting near us who were from New Zealand. I now know everything there is to know about New Zealand and about being a butcher. Strangely they had never heard of Flight of the Conchords.
When we got back to Dublin, our dad’s cousins Phyl and Tom met us at the train station. Tom owns Harry Byrnes Pub in Dublin. They look us out to a great dinner at Le Bistro, and it was really fun talking to them. I had only met them briefly in the past at a funeral. They enjoyed talking to Anthony about Chicago. I hope to meet up with them again some time before I leave. Afterwards we went back to the hostel to sleep since we had to get up at 5:15the next morning.
The next day started out the same getting to the train station and taking the train. This time we went to Limerick where we met a bus. We took the bus to Bunratty castle. Bunratty was a pretty cool area, but the boys thought it was too touristy. My favorite part was having tea in the Tea Room.
Next we went to the Cliffs of Moher, which were beautiful. I had a picture of them as my background when I was waiting to come to Ireland, so it was cool to finally see them in real life. I have to say our cliffs on the Aran Islands are still my favorites though.
After that we stopped at the Burren, which was also cool. We then continued a gorgeous bus ride around Galway Bay to Galway. When we got to Galway we checked into our hotel, which was really nice, and explored the city on our own. Then Anthony decided to have a cheese party and bought fancy cheeses and made us eat them. Next we chilled for a while then went to the pub across the street, An Pucan. That was a cool pub, and they had a traditional music session complete with two Irish dancers. Anthony was very impressed by that.
The next day we met the next bus, which took us to Connemara. We had our best tour guide that day because what he said was valuable and he didn’t talk nonstop. Our guide the second day, Peter, was the worst. We saw the bridge from “The Quiet Man”. We stopped at a village at a pub where “The Field” was shot. We went to Kylemore Abbey, which was gorgeous. That day wasn’t as filled with things to do and see, but the landscapes were definitely beautiful.
On the train back to Dublin we sat with an Irish girl named Sarah. Anthony bombarded her with questions the entire way back. A guy sitting next to us across the aisle moved because he was annoyed by us. It made the ride go fast though. Then we traveled back to campus by LUAS and bus.
On Saturday we had lunch at Cassidy’s and then went around souvenir shopping. That night we went pub crawling, starting off at O’Neill’s with all the ND kids, then going to the Bank, Blarney Inn, and O’Donoghues. It was a good last night in Dublin for them.
They left early this morning, and I’m exhausted from the week! I think they had a good time, and we got to see a lot of Ireland, which was awesome.
The next day we went back to the Guinness Storehouse and bought our tickets ahead of time to cut the line. Before we went I showed them the circle thing with the drop of Guinness in it that was my ticket the last time I went, and I told them they would get one. Apparently a couple of weeks ago they switched to a regular paper ticket, so that was disappointing. The storehouse was cool as always and the gravity bar was fun. I think we had lunch at the Bank that day. That was their favorite bar in Dublin. It’s an old Victorian bank that was converted to a bar but left exactly the same. They really enjoyed the food there. We walked around O’Connell Street after that. That night we went to Temple Bar for drinks, and I liked the guy who was singing there since he did all my favorite pub songs plus Johnny Cash randomly.
On Monday we went out to Kilmainham Gaol, a famous jail in west Dublin. That is where the 1916 uprisers were executed and many other historical events happened there. It was also a location for many movies. It was cool to see, especially after all the Irish history I’ve learned. It was weird that our guide was the same guide I had at Dublin Castle when I went with Caity. After that we got fish and chips at Burdocks which is supposed to be the best in Dublin. Then went to the O’Connell house because I needed to register for Fall classes. That took much longer than I anticipated because I ended up on the phone with the registrar’s office for a long time because of a mistake in a class listing. After that we went to St. Stephens’ Green, which looked so beautiful with all of the flowers in bloom. We had dinner at a pub on Dame Street.
On Tuesday the boys went into the city by themselves while I studied for a quiz and packed. I met them at 5:00 to check into our hostel in Dublin. We were taking two train tours where we had to be at Heuston Station at 6:40am, and since buses don’t run until 6:30am, I decided to stay in the city rather then take a taxi all the way from campus. Next I went to Theology class. Afterwards Kelly and I met up with Kevin and Anthony and we went to Porterhouse.
The next morning we woke up at 5:30am for our tour. We walked to the train station, which took a solid 20 minutes since it is really west of the city centre. Then we had a 3 hour train ride to Cork. The train was very nice and new. When we got to Cork we transferred to a minibus and rode to Blarney. There we climbed to the top of Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney stone. Blarney castle was very cool – the stairs were very windy and the stairwells narrow, and you could go in any of the rooms you found. I felt badly for the older people on our tour and a man who was heavy because it was not easy to climb and some parts were extremely narrow.
At the top we laid down as an older man helped us slide back, grab the rails, lean down, and kiss the stone. It was pretty cool, and we got some great pictures. After that we went to a pub in Blarney for lunch and shopped at Blarney Woolen Mills. I got a Belleek claddagh frame for my parents for their anniversary, which was kind of a bad idea in hindsight since I had to travel the rest of the time with it.
Next we got back on the bus and headed to Cobh, going through the Cork city centre. Cork was a nice city. We randomly stopped at a graveyard because Bob wanted to show us where the people from the Lusitania were buried. Bob was our tour guide who was an old man completely full of blarney. I loved him and he was highly entertaining, but he didn’t add any information of value to the tour. It was funny at one point when he asked if people knew what blarney was and some man yelled out “Yeah, you’re full of it!”
We stopped in Cobh (pronounced Cove), which is a nice village on the east coast of Ireland. We went to a beautiful cathedral there, then a museum about the Queenstown story. It was basically about how Cobh was the major area of emigration, and that is where most people left for America. They talked about an American wake, which is also a great song by the Elders so I liked it. We wandered around Cobh for a little while before catching the train back to Dublin.
On the train back Anthony made friends with a couple sitting near us who were from New Zealand. I now know everything there is to know about New Zealand and about being a butcher. Strangely they had never heard of Flight of the Conchords.
When we got back to Dublin, our dad’s cousins Phyl and Tom met us at the train station. Tom owns Harry Byrnes Pub in Dublin. They look us out to a great dinner at Le Bistro, and it was really fun talking to them. I had only met them briefly in the past at a funeral. They enjoyed talking to Anthony about Chicago. I hope to meet up with them again some time before I leave. Afterwards we went back to the hostel to sleep since we had to get up at 5:15the next morning.
The next day started out the same getting to the train station and taking the train. This time we went to Limerick where we met a bus. We took the bus to Bunratty castle. Bunratty was a pretty cool area, but the boys thought it was too touristy. My favorite part was having tea in the Tea Room.
Next we went to the Cliffs of Moher, which were beautiful. I had a picture of them as my background when I was waiting to come to Ireland, so it was cool to finally see them in real life. I have to say our cliffs on the Aran Islands are still my favorites though.
After that we stopped at the Burren, which was also cool. We then continued a gorgeous bus ride around Galway Bay to Galway. When we got to Galway we checked into our hotel, which was really nice, and explored the city on our own. Then Anthony decided to have a cheese party and bought fancy cheeses and made us eat them. Next we chilled for a while then went to the pub across the street, An Pucan. That was a cool pub, and they had a traditional music session complete with two Irish dancers. Anthony was very impressed by that.
The next day we met the next bus, which took us to Connemara. We had our best tour guide that day because what he said was valuable and he didn’t talk nonstop. Our guide the second day, Peter, was the worst. We saw the bridge from “The Quiet Man”. We stopped at a village at a pub where “The Field” was shot. We went to Kylemore Abbey, which was gorgeous. That day wasn’t as filled with things to do and see, but the landscapes were definitely beautiful.
On the train back to Dublin we sat with an Irish girl named Sarah. Anthony bombarded her with questions the entire way back. A guy sitting next to us across the aisle moved because he was annoyed by us. It made the ride go fast though. Then we traveled back to campus by LUAS and bus.
On Saturday we had lunch at Cassidy’s and then went around souvenir shopping. That night we went pub crawling, starting off at O’Neill’s with all the ND kids, then going to the Bank, Blarney Inn, and O’Donoghues. It was a good last night in Dublin for them.
They left early this morning, and I’m exhausted from the week! I think they had a good time, and we got to see a lot of Ireland, which was awesome.
Pictures of Kevin's Visit
The boys left this morning after a great week. I put up pictures here. I'll write an entry about the week later today!
Friday, April 11, 2008
More Visitors!
Kevin and Anthony are visiting for a week and they'll be here early tomorrow morning. I am not looking forward to meeting Kevin at the bus at 7am or earlier, but I am looking forward to the week! We have some great trips planned including Cork and Trim, and a 2 day tour of Limerick, Bunratty Castle, the Cliffs of Moher, Galway Bay, and Connemara. It's going to be another vacation week for me!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
France Day 4: Paris Part Deux
The first Sunday of the month all of the museums in Paris are free, so we were lucky to be there the first Sunday in April. We went straight to the Louvre in the morning, after stopping for crepes of course. The Louvre is such a big museum, and it’s hard to navigate. We started off at the Napoleon apartments, which were very cool, then we headed to the Mona Lisa and looked at all of the paintings on the way. It was very strange the way they allow you to take pictures in the Louvre. The Mona Lisa was surrounded by a hoard of people flashing away. You would have thought Britney Spears was standing there or something. It was a strange dynamic for a museum.
After the Louvre we got lunch by Notre Dame and then went on a hop on/hop off boat tour of the Seine. It loops around the Eiffel Tower, Musée d'Orsay, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Notre Dame, Jardin des Plantes, Hôtel de Ville, Louvre, and Champs-Elysées. We hopped off again at Notre Dame to get crepes from the best crepe man.
We planned to go to Musée d'Orsay at 5 so that we could be there until it closed at 6:45, then we could have dinner. We got there a little before 5, and right when we did they said they were closing because they were at capacity because of free museum day. That was sad because we could have gone earlier had we known.
Next we went to the Opera house that The Phantom of the Opera was based upon. After that we headed to the Champs-Elysées. By that point it was getting very cold, had started to rain a lot, and we were tired from our day. We passed a few movie theaters and decided to go into one. The plan was to see The Other Boleyn Girl, but due to the language barrier we ended up seeing Be Kind Rewind with Jack Black. That was a surprise when the movie started! It was really funny and it was in English with French subtitles, which was nice.
Next we walked to L’Arc du Triomphe and took pictures. By that point it was freezing, so we went back to the hostel and got fromage crepes for dinner.
At 11:00, we climbed up many, many stairs to the Sacre Couer so we could see the sparkling Eiffel tower. We had a really nice view of the city, and the lights on the Eiffel Tower were amazing.
Apparently it snowed that night because when we woke up the next day all of the cars were covered. We woke up early to go inside the Sacre Coeur before we left. This time we were smart and took the funicular up the hill. It really is a gorgeous church. It was weird because we walked around and looked at the side chapels, and three in a row were for St. Rita, St. Mary, and St. Joseph, which are 3 of my grandparents’ names.
Then I took two trains, a bus, a plane, and another bus, and I was back in Dublin in time for class at night.
After the Louvre we got lunch by Notre Dame and then went on a hop on/hop off boat tour of the Seine. It loops around the Eiffel Tower, Musée d'Orsay, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Notre Dame, Jardin des Plantes, Hôtel de Ville, Louvre, and Champs-Elysées. We hopped off again at Notre Dame to get crepes from the best crepe man.
We planned to go to Musée d'Orsay at 5 so that we could be there until it closed at 6:45, then we could have dinner. We got there a little before 5, and right when we did they said they were closing because they were at capacity because of free museum day. That was sad because we could have gone earlier had we known.
Next we went to the Opera house that The Phantom of the Opera was based upon. After that we headed to the Champs-Elysées. By that point it was getting very cold, had started to rain a lot, and we were tired from our day. We passed a few movie theaters and decided to go into one. The plan was to see The Other Boleyn Girl, but due to the language barrier we ended up seeing Be Kind Rewind with Jack Black. That was a surprise when the movie started! It was really funny and it was in English with French subtitles, which was nice.
Next we walked to L’Arc du Triomphe and took pictures. By that point it was freezing, so we went back to the hostel and got fromage crepes for dinner.
At 11:00, we climbed up many, many stairs to the Sacre Couer so we could see the sparkling Eiffel tower. We had a really nice view of the city, and the lights on the Eiffel Tower were amazing.
Apparently it snowed that night because when we woke up the next day all of the cars were covered. We woke up early to go inside the Sacre Coeur before we left. This time we were smart and took the funicular up the hill. It really is a gorgeous church. It was weird because we walked around and looked at the side chapels, and three in a row were for St. Rita, St. Mary, and St. Joseph, which are 3 of my grandparents’ names.
Then I took two trains, a bus, a plane, and another bus, and I was back in Dublin in time for class at night.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
France Day 3: Paris
We took the train from Torcy to Anvers the next day after getting more beignets. Sophie told me about all day passes for students that you can get on weekends, so we got that. It was so convenient and we didn’t get stuck in any more turnstiles. We went to Le Village hostel in Montemartre and dropped our things off. The hostel was nice. The man working at the desk in the morning was very nice, but the man in the afternoon was very rude and unhelpful.
After that we did what any good tourist would do and headed straight to the Eiffel tower. It was so amazing coming out of the metro station and looking up and seeing it. We got on line to get tickets to go up, which took forever. It was much longer than any line we waited in at Disneyland. While we waited men were climbing down the tower on a rope. That was good entertainment. It was cool going up the tower, but I liked the views from other places better. It’s better to have the Eiffel Tower in your pictures than views from it.
After that we got baguettes for lunch and ate them on the Seine right across from the Eiffel tower. Then we took the metro to Notre Dame. It was strange how many street performers there were outside the church, but I guess it makes sense since it’s such a tourist area. Inside Notre Dame was very nice. It’s much bigger than the cathedrals in Dublin. I lit a candle for my grandfather and walked around in there for a while.
Then we went outside and decided to climb up the bell tower. While we waited we ate crepes that we got from the man across from the cathedral. They were the best crepes in Paris – made right from batter in front of you (a lot of places just heat up the crepe and put toppings on). We got banana nutella, and it was wonderful. The line took forever and it got cold and rained while we waited (that seems to be a theme of all my travels). There were 2 girls in front of us from the US Army who were great entertainment. I can’t really explain it, but they were very… interesting.
When we finally got in we began our climb of 400 steps to the top. The first part was easy, and then you end up in a gift shop where they trap you for 15 minutes. And who did we run into but my flatmate and 3 other Dublin girls. It’s a small world. After that we climbed to the first part. They let you out and you can walk around and take pictures. The view was amazing and it was well worth the climb. It was fun getting pictures with the gargoyles. Then you can go into the south tower belfry and see a bell. Then you keep climbing to the top - that part was the worst. It’s annoying because with spiral steps you never know how much is ahead of you. Actually the climb down was the worst because it’s the same grey spiral stairs forever, it’s not very well lit, and your eyes start to go crazy by the bottom. It was actually hard to walk straight after going down the 400 spiral stairs.
Then we headed back to Montmartre for a free tour. The company New City does free tours of a bunch of major cities. We had taken one in Edinburgh, so I knew it was good. We had a cute guy tour guide and we went to Moulin Rouge, saw the last remaining windmill, Van Gogh’s house where the blue room is, a restaurant where Picasso traded paintings for food, Paris’ last vineyard, and the Sacre Coeur. There was also an Amelie theme to the tour, and he showed us lots of places from that movie, but I only saw it once so I didn’t really care about that part.
At around 8:30 we had a nice dinner near our hostel. I had caprese and spaghetti (there is a lot of Italian food in Paris). The weird part was that it was a nice French restaurant, but they had a TV playing a Phil Collins concert. I loved it, but it was definitely strange. After that we did some late night souvenir shopping and headed back to the hostel.
After that we did what any good tourist would do and headed straight to the Eiffel tower. It was so amazing coming out of the metro station and looking up and seeing it. We got on line to get tickets to go up, which took forever. It was much longer than any line we waited in at Disneyland. While we waited men were climbing down the tower on a rope. That was good entertainment. It was cool going up the tower, but I liked the views from other places better. It’s better to have the Eiffel Tower in your pictures than views from it.
After that we got baguettes for lunch and ate them on the Seine right across from the Eiffel tower. Then we took the metro to Notre Dame. It was strange how many street performers there were outside the church, but I guess it makes sense since it’s such a tourist area. Inside Notre Dame was very nice. It’s much bigger than the cathedrals in Dublin. I lit a candle for my grandfather and walked around in there for a while.
Then we went outside and decided to climb up the bell tower. While we waited we ate crepes that we got from the man across from the cathedral. They were the best crepes in Paris – made right from batter in front of you (a lot of places just heat up the crepe and put toppings on). We got banana nutella, and it was wonderful. The line took forever and it got cold and rained while we waited (that seems to be a theme of all my travels). There were 2 girls in front of us from the US Army who were great entertainment. I can’t really explain it, but they were very… interesting.
When we finally got in we began our climb of 400 steps to the top. The first part was easy, and then you end up in a gift shop where they trap you for 15 minutes. And who did we run into but my flatmate and 3 other Dublin girls. It’s a small world. After that we climbed to the first part. They let you out and you can walk around and take pictures. The view was amazing and it was well worth the climb. It was fun getting pictures with the gargoyles. Then you can go into the south tower belfry and see a bell. Then you keep climbing to the top - that part was the worst. It’s annoying because with spiral steps you never know how much is ahead of you. Actually the climb down was the worst because it’s the same grey spiral stairs forever, it’s not very well lit, and your eyes start to go crazy by the bottom. It was actually hard to walk straight after going down the 400 spiral stairs.
Then we headed back to Montmartre for a free tour. The company New City does free tours of a bunch of major cities. We had taken one in Edinburgh, so I knew it was good. We had a cute guy tour guide and we went to Moulin Rouge, saw the last remaining windmill, Van Gogh’s house where the blue room is, a restaurant where Picasso traded paintings for food, Paris’ last vineyard, and the Sacre Coeur. There was also an Amelie theme to the tour, and he showed us lots of places from that movie, but I only saw it once so I didn’t really care about that part.
At around 8:30 we had a nice dinner near our hostel. I had caprese and spaghetti (there is a lot of Italian food in Paris). The weird part was that it was a nice French restaurant, but they had a TV playing a Phil Collins concert. I loved it, but it was definitely strange. After that we did some late night souvenir shopping and headed back to the hostel.
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