St. Paddy's Festivities

If you ever have the chance to visit Ireland for St. Patrick's Day, you'll be visiting a very different Dublin from the one I have gotten to know and love.

This year St. Patrick's Day fell on a Tuesday, but there was a festival starting the Saturday beforehand, i.e. from March 14-March 17. Neither I nor any of my friends really knew what to expect going into the weekend, to be honest. Friday late morning I noticed lots of people pulling wheely suitcases behind them, and knew it had begun.

Saturday a small group of us went to a pub to watch the Ireland vs Wales rugby game--shoutout to Ireland for winning the 6 nations title the next week!--and decided not to explore the St. Patrick's festivities just yet. On Sunday, we went to the 2015 Beer and Whiskey Festival, which was a ton of fun. There were stalls upon stalls of all different local beer, whiskey, and cider companies, and live music playing all day. I sampled a lot of the different ciders, and don't think I can ever go back to drinking it out of a can!

Tuesday morning, I woke up early and donned my St. Paddy's Day outfit: a green and white Ireland Rugby, thick green Irish wool socks, and an "Irish Drinking Team" baseball hat that would not have been complete without its can opener on the brim. Finishing it off with a shamrock on my cheek, I definitely looked ridiculous but was ready to go. I headed over to Markie, Maggie, Kelsey, and Jamie's apartment around 9 to meet up with some of our guy friends and cook a gourmet breakfast including pancakes, sausage, bacon, toast, and hash browns. While having 9 people in a small kitchen was a little crazy, it was a blast!

Around 11 we walked downtown to get spots for the parade, which started at noon. That was our one mistake, because it was already packed with people! The only spot we could get was about 8 people deep, so I couldn't actually see any of the parade. After a few minutes we decided to give up and head to a local student pub, which began our day of pub hopping through Dublin.

(Side note: my one goal of the day was for someone to use my hat to open a beer. This dream came true in the bathroom of a pub when two girls asked around for a can opener as they pulled two bottles out of their bag. Mission accomplished :) )

Overall, it was a really fun day! I want to reflect on my very first comment of this post, that visiting Dublin for St. Patrick's Day is visiting a very different place than the city I have gotten to know, because it not only explains why I found the holiday to be a little over-hyped but also reveals something I find pretty cool.

Streets packed with people celebrating all day was crazy and fun, and I would definitely recommend coming to Dublin for the holiday if you ever have the chance. Had I only been here for the weekend, I think I would have loved every second of it! The thing is, I have lived here long enough that I feel like I know Dublin on a slightly deeper level, and I missed it that weekend. Almost every Irish person I know fled the city for the duration of the holiday, most of them using the exact phrase "I avoid it like the plague," which was interesting. People from all over the world travel here and take over the city pretty much to drink; they are energetic and excited to be in Ireland, which is awesome, but when Dublin is your home that would be exhausting.

What I found to be really cool was that I was in the grey area between tourist and local--more towards tourist since I am only here for 5 months, but still. I definitely enjoyed St. Patrick's Day, but I was also missing Dublin and was ready for it to be over.

Maybe I really am becoming a Dubliner?


Thanks for reading :)



Shortly into the semester my iPhone camera broke, so a few credits are due to Markie and Julia for photos here and there!

The Calm Before the Storm (of tourists)

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day! 

Being in Dublin the last few days has been crazy, and to be honest I'm not sure what to expect for tomorrow. But all of that will be covered in another post later this week. For now... a little bit of catch-up (I'm seeing a trend here).

Maggie, Markie, Kelsey, Me, Sarah

It's been almost four weeks since you last heard from me, when I was catching up on a little bit of work before Reading Week. As I said, Trinity gave us the full last week of February off. While most Irish students really do take the week to both do a lot of schoolwork as well as go out with friends, for study abroad students it is a perfect time to travel. I planned a trip to Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and Paris with four of my friends here--Markie, Maggie, Kelsey, and Sarah.


We left Friday morning, and by late afternoon had arrived at our hostel in Vienna, Austria. Markie did most of the hostel research, and we stayed in 5 great ones. All were clean and in amazing locations, usually a walkable distance to city centre. In Vienna, there was actually a bar and two pool tables in the basement. We were there from Friday until Sunday morning, and had some of our most interesting experiences of the trip there, to say the least--one included nearly being pick-pocketed which was a necessary wake up call. Compared to the other places I have been, there was a very noticeable animosity to a majority of the people we encountered. All of us agreed it was our least favorite city, though still gorgeous. The museum quarter is filled with beautiful, huge, and intimidating white buildings, with lots of green space in between. 

Vienna

On Friday after walking around the city center and getting dinner, we decided to sample Vienna's nightlife. By recommendation of someone working at the hostel, we went to a club called Prater Dome. If you ever find yourself in Vienna, I would definitely recommend it! It is the nicest club I have been in; and probably one of the most expensive. We had some fun cocktails and explored the club. It was very posh, if I had to choose a word to describe it. There were two levels with lots of big rooms, each having their own theme and bar. We spent most of our time in the pop and latin rooms.

The next day we explored Vienna on foot, including the beautiful palace just outside of the city. After the late night and busy day, we decided to go back to the Prater, which is actually a permanent carnival. It was a lot of fun! There was a famous giant ferris wheel, and a few rides we decided to try out. After a few rounds of pool back at the hostel, we called it an early night. 

Late Sunday morning we caught our bus to Budapest, Hungary. Being honest, Budapest is the reason I pushed for the trip into central Europe because one of my best friends from WashU--Katie--is studying there for the semester. I absolutely adored the city, and would really love to go back someday because there was so much more to see. During the day we walked around to visit some of the popular tourist sights, including St Peter's Cathedral and Buda Castle. Budapest is actually two cities separated by a river (Buda and Pest), with the castle lying right on its banks. It was one of the prettiest views I think I saw all trip. 

Budapest

After a nice Hungarian dinner and a break at the hostel, we set out to explore the famous Ruin Pubs. As a side note, everything in Budapest is insanely cheap. 1 USD is about 290 Forints, and for the time we were in the city I pulled out 40,000 Forints and had over 10,000 left over; that's less than 100 USD, including paying for the hostel. 



The Ruin Pubs are a must do when in Budapest. The district that is home to these pubs was once the Jewish quarter before World War II, and they are all inside old ruin buildings. We went to two of them, and like Vienna they had multiple rooms each with its own flavor. My personal highlight: Katie meeting up with us along with a few of her friends. The night included sampling some interesting Hungarian alcohol, cheap but very good wine, and great music. It was my favorite time out of the entire trip.




The next morning, we woke up early to try out the well known Turkish baths with Katie and one of her friends. Well worth it! The experience was very unique--and included Sarah having to rent a bathing suit, which was hilarious. We soaked in all of the different baths for over two hours, sitting alongside the many old men playing chess and elderly women who seemed to all know one another. I could definitely see myself retiring in Budapest and joining them one day. 

The next morning, Markie, Sarah and I were privileged enough to leave our hostel at 4:30 AM to catch a 5:25 train to Prague. (Kelsey and Maggie had accidentally bought that last two 7:25 tickets...). The 7 hour train ride actually flew by, though I wasn't able to sleep at all. A good portion of it we hung out in the dining car with coffee and watched the countryside roll by. 

As cheesy as it might sound, the best way I can describe Prague is that it came right out of a fairytale.  Old Town Square specifically would be at home in Disney World. We spent the day exploring, including seeing the Lennon Wall, Prague Castle, and most of the downtown area since Prague is very small and compact. It is also extremely touristy, with souvenir shops every few feet. The next day we went on a free three hour walking tour, which I am so glad we did. Hearing snippets of Prague's history was really cool. Fun fact: Prague's streets were actually raised a full story to keep up with rising water levels, which is why many restaurants and bars are in the basement of buildings. They were originally the first floor! 

Prague

Thursday rolled around, and after another morning of walking the city, we caught a 5:25 (PM this time thank goodness) plane back to Dublin. At this point we were all splitting up the following morning, with Maggie traveling to Northern Ireland, Kelsey to Milan, and Markie and I to Paris. Plane tickets were actually cheaper with one night at home, which was perfect since my suitcase is so small!

First meal: Baguette with Brie Cheese

Paris is hands down my favorite city I have been to. Markie and I were there Friday to Tuesday morning (Paris over class any day, right Mom?), and while almost four full days was plenty of time to get a taste for the city, I could see myself being there for weeks and not see it all. 

Selfie at the top!

On Friday we arrived at our hostel around noon, and took a two hour walk to the Eiffel Tower. (It was definitely worth it to see the smaller streets of Paris, though after that we switched to taking the metro.) My first view of it felt so surreal, because I couldn't quite

wrap my head around actually being in Paris! Every view felt pretty similar. After waiting in the line for about an hour, we finally got to go up to the top. The view is amazing! Going up the Eiffel Tower is a must do the first time you're in Paris, but I probably wouldn't go up it again. For me, seeing it from a distance was way more magical.

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Markie and I ventured into a random little French cafe for dinner, and called it any early night after getting some Nutella and banana crepes for dessert. This hostel had a foosball table that we monopolized for a while before bed.

Day 2 was museum day. A great perk to being registered with immigration here in Ireland is that I have a student GNIB card, and as someone living in the EU for more than three months, I got free entrance to all of the museums! We started with the Louvre, and continued on from there. Markie and I had the same pace--pretty much a walk through of each museum--which was perfect. My favorite was a museum that housed lots of Monet's paintings, who is my favorite artist. After so much walking, we went to Shakespeare and Company, which is a famous independent bookstore that many famous writers once hung out at, including James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. They had a piano that Markie actually played for a few minutes, where she gained a small crowd to watch her performance. As a book nerd, I really loved it!

That night, we ate dinner at a small fondue restaurant that was one of our most fun experiences! We found out later its actually well known and we were really lucky to stumble upon it and get seats. For one price, we we were served a small plate of appetizers and a pre dinner drink, followed by a GIANT pot of delicious cheese with unending baskets of bread pieces. We also each got a baby bottle of wine. And by baby bottle, I am not kidding. Like a circular jar that had a little nozzle on the end. It was fantastic!

On day 3, we went to the Palace of Versailles which was my favorite palace/castle so far. While the interior is really pretty, it is the grounds that I found the most impressive. We spent most of the day exploring there, and tried a French club that night.

On our last day, we just wandered the streets of Paris. This was actually probably my favorite part, because I feel like we got a better feel for the city. After stopping by Notre Dame in the morning (okay at this point pretty churches are starting to look the same), the day included eating macaroons in the rain, window shopping in districts way out of our price range, and walking down the river with a continuous view of the Eiffel Tower. At the end, we both splurged a little and bought Long Champ bags because since they are cheaper in Paris, we had to get one right?





After a lovely French dinner my parents were nice enough to buy us--steak potatoes and wine, yum!--we stopped back at the hostel to make a game plan. In the end, Markie and I ended our trip to Paris by sitting on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower, eating waffles covered in Nutella, and splitting a bottle of champagne as we watched it sparkle. It was the perfect end to an amazing trip.




For the next two days--and even now!--I found myself missing Paris. Why only two days? Because after getting home to Dublin Tuesday morning, I left Thursday afternoon for a weekend in Madrid! Maggie and I had planned the trip to visit school friends, as there are a ton of WashU people studying there. However we ran into a small problem when Maggie went to the doctor on Thursday and ended up having Pneumonia. She had to back out of the trip, but I decided to go ahead on my own.

The friend I was mainly visiting was Erika, who I was hanging out with the whole time but who I unfortunately could not stay with since she is doing a home stay with a Spanish family. I was a little nervous about staying in a hostel by myself, but Maggie and I had chosen a highly rated one in Puerta Del Sol (aka the heart of Madrid) and it went really well! I felt really independent which was cool too, even though Erika pretty much dropped me off every day. 

The weekend was great and included 70 degree blue skies, an infamous Spanish club, a picnic in the beautiful Parque del Retiro, touring a palace, renting boats on a small lake, and plenty of Spanish food. On my last night in Madrid, we actually went to a soccer game! Atletico fans were so into the game, it was a ton of fun. Monday morning my flight was at 10:30 AM so I said goodbye to Erika and set an alarm for 7, planning on leaving the hostel at 7:30 to give myself plenty of time. 

When I woke up, I took a few leisurely minutes to actually wake up and then glanced at my phone. 

9:08

I have never leaped out of bed so fast. I literally threw on pants, shoved my stuff in my bag, threw my keys at the guy at the front desk, and ran for a taxi. No way did I think I was going to make it, and I probably scared the driver as I was such a mess. I almost called my parents in a panic (hello 3 AM wake up call) before I took a breath and realized they would just say the only thing I could do was buy another ticket. But still, I was freaked out. I got to the airport at 9:45, and went right to security.

 Somehow--literally miracle of miracles--there were only maybe five people in front of me. I was in the airport within ten minutes! By 10 AM I had made it to my gate, and got there just in time to join the queue to board. How, I am still not sure. But I made it home to Dublin!

In the week since then, I had two sleepless nights to finish two 8 page essays I pushed off, saw an adaption of a Midsummer Night's Dream set in a nursing home, and have enjoyed all of the crazy things going on because of St. Patrick's Day. We'll see what tomorrow has to bring!

Wow, sorry for writing another novel! So many different experiences in the last month, and they have all been amazing. I still can't believe how lucky I am to be doing all of this, and I hope you've enjoyed hearing about some of it! I promise to write again within a week to relay all of the St. Patty's Day festival craziness. 

Thanks for reading!


PS: If you want a postcard, send me your address!

7 Weeks on the Emerald Isle

Hey guys!

So I'm a little late to the game...I never really considered keeping a blog for my time in Ireland, but in the past seven weeks I have realized how truly difficult it is to keep friends and family updated on my life abroad. So here we are!

I am in absolute shock that I have been living in Dublin for 47 days--its terrifying how fast time is moving--and I have been having an amazing time. I will do my best to catch you all up! This post is going to be crazy long (you're welcome mom and dad) so feel free to jump ship at any time.


Week 1

New year, new country, new adventures. I left Chicago on January 1st...talk about an exciting start to 2015. Having never been out of the US before, I didn't know what to expect. But by 6:30 am January 2nd, I had made it to the Emerald Isle.

After stating I was arriving as a student at Trinity College, I pretty much just waltzed into the country with passport in hand. To be honest, I 100% thought I had somehow snuck in. I met up with three other students from the states who arrived around the same time, and all seemed really nice. I was then pretty much sent on my merry way with a print out of the address of my new home for the next four and a half months.

Being only 7:30 am when I arrived, it was still pitch black out. I was the first of my roommates--Sarah, Nicole, and Payton--to move into our apartment, which is in an extremely nice complex in Donnybrook, Dublin. We have two double rooms with bathrooms, and I share mine with Nicole, who is great.  We all share a tiny but functional kitchen and a big living room with huge windows.




Nicole was second to arrive, almost two hours after me. Unfortunately our wifi hadn't been set up yet, so I started to get overwhelmed by the whole "new place-know no one-have nothing to do-running on 24 hours with no sleep" thing. I am happy to say that those two hours are the only ones that homesickness has hit me--not that I don't miss you all of course!


After a power nap, my roommates and I set out to explore Dublin a little bit and find some food. The rest of the week was filled with Trinity orientation, which meant three hours of lecture every morning. One each on the history of Trinity, Dublin, and Ireland. It was all really interesting! Each afternoon we had some sort of activity, including a tour of campus, visiting Croke Park (home of the Gaelic games), seeing a play at Abbey Theatre, and a day trip out to Wicklow and Glendalough.

 Glendalough

The day trip was hands down the highlight of the week. Wicklow is an adorable little town, and we got to explore the old Wicklow Gaol (Jail). Next we took a bus over to Glendalough National Park, which is one of the most beautiful areas of Ireland I have seen so far. Its name translates to "a valley between two lakes," and it is home to the remnants of an old monastery. We hiked down a path to one of the lakes, and were buffeted by rain and wind so strong you could lean back into it and be literally be held up for a handful of seconds.



Weeks 2-4

St Stephen's Green

Outside of not unpacking for at least a week, settling in was actually pretty easy. As expected, I have experienced almost no culture shock. The most difficult part to be honest is getting used to the whole driving on the other side of the street thing. No close calls yet so fingers crossed! Also, people are not exaggerating the kindness of the Irish. A few times when I didn't know where I was going, people actually approached me to offer directions instead of waiting to be asked! It is also pretty common to say good morning to anyone you pass on the street. 

Trinity's campus is really nice! The main square is picturesque. It's a little bizarre going to school at a tourist destination though. Registering for classes was a nightmare--let's just say Trinity does not have the most functional system--but I figured out my     schedule and began classes. 

At night, I started exploring pubs and clubs with other kids from my program. I am not exaggerating when I say there is a pub every ten feet here. Or that the street names seem to change every block, so people actually give directions by referencing pubs.  Right across from Beggar's Bush, one block past Porterhouse, take a right after Doyle's, etc.  After my hardest semester yet back at WashU, having very little school work and going out every night has been a fantastic change. 


One thing that I did not expect was that it is actually pretty difficult to become friends with Irish students. My classes are relatively large, and a majority of the students actually commute to Trinity. They leave friday afternoons and don't come back into Dublin until Sunday or Monday, so not many chances to see them on the weekends. However I have made friends with two Irish guys, and they have been great at telling me the insider tips.



With my roommates and a friend named Kristina, I took a small trip down to Cork, the southernmost city in Ireland. We took a bus down early one Saturday morning, and spent the day exploring the city by foot. It is much smaller than Dublin (and remember Dublin is pretty small) but it had a more quaint and seaside feel to it. We stayed in a really nice bed and breakfast for the same price as a hostel, and got to enjoy a delicious Irish breakfast Sunday morning. My favorite part was porridge with bailey's cream in it--I highly recommend 
it next time you're in Ireland!

Next we took a bus out to Blarney Castle, which was the trip's highlight. Yes I kissed the Blarney Stone. Yes I did think about how gross that really is. But it was definitely a must do while at the castle. We were lucky enough to have blue skies, and exploring the castle and its grounds was a fantastic experience. Getting out of Dublin and seeing more of Ireland was great, and something I want to do a lot more of.


Week 5

After a few days at home in Dublin--a continuous stream of exploring the city, going to pubs, and a few hours of class mixed in--I took my first weekend trip outside of Ireland!

With my roommate Sarah and our good friends Julia, I flew to London early Friday morning. How crazy is it that we got round trip tickets for under 50 euro? Ryanair is an amazing thing.

Funny story...we were carrying on bags, so we simply went through security without stopping at the Ryanair bag check desk. What we did not know yet is that in tiny print on the tickets, there are instructions to stop at the desk to have our travel documents checked or boarding onto the flight will be denied. 

We had arrived early, so leisurely ate breakfast and wandered over to the gate. Julia then noticed this little note as we waited in line to board, so I was sent in a panic up to the Ryanair gate desk to plead with puppy dog eyes (benefit of being a young American girl I suppose). They were really nice about it and allowed us to board after entering our names into the system, so that we can't sneak out of Ireland again. 

After landing in London and dropping our stuff off at a little Holiday Inn Express in the Oxford-Circus area, we grabbed lunch at a small cafe and took the tube (so English!) over to the Tower of London. It was so cool to see the castle and hear about all of its history,

though my favorite part was getting to see the Crown Jewels. They are more beautiful and extravagant than you can imagine! We also saw Tower Bridge, which has actually been one of my favorite things so far. The architecture and bright colors just really struck me. I still can't believe I'm living in Europe.

After heading home, we walked around to choose a place for dinner. On a small pedestrian street called St Christopher's Place, you could say that the right restaurant chose us. As we walked by, a man stopped us and handed us free glasses of hot mulled wine. It was DELICIOUS, and we were sold. It ended up being a really yummy greek restaurant that has been my favorite dining experience so far.

We stayed for almost an hour and a half before heading home and going to bed early. Late that night, three of our friends--Josh, Lucas, and Brian--arrived at the hotel to spend the rest of the weekend with us.

Saturday morning we woke up at 6 a.m. to catch a bus, because we were off to the Harry Potter Studios Tour! Let's just say I fangirled pretty hard, but luckily Sarah and Julia were right there with me. Definitely a HP fan's heaven.

Later that day, we explored Westminster and took a tour of the House of Parliament which was really cool. The mix of history, extravagance, and politics made for a very interesting afternoon. That night, we all did a pub crawl down Camden Street, which was a lot of fun. We left pretty early and were in bed just after 1 after such an early morning.

Sunday morning we tried a full english breakfast--not my thing--and went to mass at Westminster Abbey. This was actually one of my highlights. The church is breathtaking, and the choir was beautiful. Plus I couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact that I was sitting in the place where the king and queens of England usually have their weddings!

Afterwards we explored Harrods, which is a crazy department store that you can't really understand until you visit. I could spend probably a whole week in there, so while I only saw a fraction of it my favorite wing was called Shoe Heaven. We stayed for afternoon tea, which was so much fun and a must-do.

Then I peeled off from the group and met two of my best friends from school studying in London, Glenna and Rachel, to catch up for the afternoon. It was so refreshing and amazing to see them! 

The six of us left early Monday morning, and I got home just in time to hop in the shower and make a mad dash to class. The best part? I got to campus to find out class had been canceled. 

Overall this first trip outside of Ireland was an absolute blast, and definitely a successful trip. Something that I think is really cool is that as much as I loved London, coming back to Dublin felt like coming home.

Week 6

Beach ~2 miles away I usually run to

Another typical Monday through Thursday. I was really happy to be in Dublin for the weekend, as a break after London was much needed. Friday was February 13--Galentine's day as Markie called it. Markie, Maggie, Kelsey, and I celebrated by dressing up, eating chocolate, and drinking definitely too much red wine before going out, but it was a lot of fun.

Saturday was Julia's birthday! We woke up early and took a train out to a seaside town called Bray, to do a three hour hike from Bray to Greystones. It was the most beautiful experience I have had in Ireland so far.


We hiked up one side of a bluff, off roading it by using what we think might have been an animal path. (I still have some battle scars on my legs.) But the view from the top was well worth the work. We could see all of Bray laid out below us, with rolling green hills to one side, and the gorgeous blue waters of the coast to the other. It was breathtaking.

The rest of the hike kept us along the coast, and we ended up in Greystones for a lovely birthday lunch. After getting home and taking a much needed shower, Sarah and I celebrated Valentine's day by having more red wine and chocolate while watching Step Up.  A good life decision. Later that night, we met everyone at a fun pub/club to continue Julia's 21st birthday celebration. Sunday after sleeping in, Julia, Sarah and I explored the Dublin zoo! It was a really fun afternoon. 

Week 7

Finally caught up to this week! It's going to be filled with homework (wait what I actually have work this week?) and sleep, in preparation for reading week! Trinity is nice enough to give us all of next week off to catch up on our studies. So naturally my friends and I are traveling! We are taking a whirlwind trip to Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and Paris in 11 days. 


If you actually managed to stay with me to all the way down here, I am extremely impressed! I plan to post every other week, so I promise the rest will be shorter. I'm having an absolutely amazing time, but miss you all!

Thanks for reading!


PS: If any of you happen to feel like writing a letter:

Julie Knowles
27-29 Lower Rathmines Road
Dublin 6, Ireland

 :)