Since last time

It's been far too long since I posted. So this is going to be a long blog. Since the weekend in Belfast I've been to Portrush(which neighbors Portstewart), Limevady, Dublin(for St. Patrick's Day weekend), London, and around the coast of Northern Ireland. We went to Limevady one day with my host Mom Ann, she showed us around and brought us though a wonderful nature walk. She is about 70 years old but is the very active. Each time we get together she takes us along the coast somewhere and always brings us on nature walks, which I adore because you wouldn't know about them if you weren't a local. But now on to Dublin.

Jameson

Guinness

We went to Dublin for the St. Patrick's Day festivities, since we knew we'd be down there for St. Patrick's day we decided to turn it in to a weekend there, and do all the touristy things all at once. We were there from Wednesday-Sunday and covered everything we wanted to. On Wednesday night we ran into some of the St. Patrick's day festivities. They had people from all over the world playing music from there country and dressed in outfits.  For the rest of the time in Dublin we went to the famous Temple Bar, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Guinness Brewery, Jameson Distillery, National Wax Museum Plus, Trinity College, Christ Church Cathedral, and the City Hall. It was an amazing, fun weekend even though it was packed with people. On St. Patrick's day we started the day early with seeing the parade, which was different than a parade you would see in America. The parade had many random figures in it kinda like the ones you would see in Tim Burton's films. After the parade a few of us decided it would be fun to take pictures with people we saw in crazy outfits. This was a successful mission due to everyone being dressed up. I found it ironic though how we heard that a lot of people that live in Dublin leave for the St. Patrick's day weekend, yet when in the Temple Bar area, which was the most crowded was full of tourist. You could probably tour the world on this day in Dublin with the amount of people who come in from all over the world on this day. My favorite part after St. Patrick's day of course was the Jameson Distillery, Guinness Brewery, and the Wax museum. At the distillery I became a certified whiskey taster! They had you try a Scottish whiskey(Johnnie Walker), Irish whiskey(Jameson), and an American whiskey(Jack Daniels). The difference in them is how many times there distilled and how they distill it. Jameson is distilled 3 times, Scottish is distilled twice, and of course leave it to America to only distill it once. When I tasted the different types I could identify the difference, which was very interesting to me. Out of our group no one really enjoyed the Scottish whiskey, and of course Jameson was our favorite. At the distillery as well I ran into a couple that was from Minnesota! The ability to meet them and hear there accents was a comforting, a little piece of home :) The Guinness Brewery was intriguing as well. After you tour the Guinness brewery and learn all about how it's brewed you come up to there famous Gravity Bar, where you get your free pint of Guinness but are also able to see all of Dublin. It is a truly amazing view. When we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral we got lucky it was a beautiful day out, so we enjoyed it by sitting in the park and climbing some trees(not recommended-got in trouble). Also, the night we were suppose to stay in a hostel we got the privilege to stay in a fancy hotel instead because they over booked the hostel for that night. Our last day in Dublin we went to a pub to watch the rugby match, this place was amazing with great food out on the grill outside in the beer garden. The match was England vs. Ireland, England was assumed to win but Ireland ended up having a huge defeat over them, which was a pleasant surprise. Dublin was overall an amazing trip with amazing people. I fell in love with Dublin on this adventure.

Typical tourist London photo

Tower Bridge

After getting back to Portstewart on Sunday from Dublin I had two days of classes and a free day before we were off to London. We arrived in London at night so we took some pictures of London at night and tried teaching my roommate Rachel how to ride a bike, which was interesting-let's just say it didn't work out. In London we saw Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Trafalgar square, Covent garden, The National Gallery, St. Jame's park, London eye, Transport Museum, Wellington Arch, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London bridge, Tower bridge, and Westminster Abbey. We saw most when we took a two and a half hour walking tour. The tour was a lot of fun though and worthwhile. The guide was funny and very informative. It made me want to learn more about the United Kingdoms history. Also, made us realize how big London really is. On Saturday there was a protest in London, which we tried to stay away from by going to Harrods, which is an incredibly fancy store. Let's just say if you get the urge to buy a £400 pen you can find it here. They had everything in this store from gelato to modern style fooseball table. We spent majority of our day in here with our jaws dropped from the amount/range of stuff they had to the prices of things that some people were actually purchasing. I found my dream kitchen and patio set in this store, so once I purchase a house my next step will be to return to London for them. Even though we tried to stay away from the protest it seemed to be following us because of this we would run into random problems of the tubes(underground rail station) and buses being shut down making it hard for us to get to one place to another. After our adventurous day shopping we made it our mission to find Chipotle!!! which was a huge success and made my life by being able to have Chipotle in London and luckily it still tasted the same as home. In the location that Chipotle was, there was the Chinese district, which has more Chinese places to eat than anywhere in the world except for China of course. The next day was when we went on the walking tour and saw many sites. Also, while in London we went to the comedy show which was well worth it. There was comedians there from all over and they were actually funny. One of my favorite parts about being abroad is hearing what the world thinks about Americans, and at the comedy show the comedians had a good time picking on America(still proud to be an American though). My overall impression of London was that it is a tremendous city but a bit too large for me. Another way to sum up our trip to London is: "running to trains, being 5 min walk away from protesters throwing rocks & starting fires, allnighter to catch plane/bus, sleeping with no hot water & heat w/ squators, chipotle, $400 pens, palaces, sneaking on buses/tubes & threatened expensive fines, being stuck bc buses/tubes close.. hanging out with Marissa Meyers & Haley Anderson.. pretty successful/awesome weekend.. and that is London" this was my roommates status on facebook to sum up our weekend and people from London said we had a typical experience...

World's smallest church

On April 3rd it was Mother's day in Ireland. On Mother's day my host mum(the way they spell mom here) had my roommate Rachel, Marissa, and I over for lunch. It was amazing to have a home cooked meal, since I haven't for a very long time. She served us vegetable soup for a starter, then for the main meal ham, peas, potatoes, and honey parsnips(1st time having them and loved them). For dessert she made sticky toffee pudding, which is an amazing dessert. It is soooo good. It has the texture of lava without chocolate with a carmel sauce instead. After eating lunch, we sat and chatted with tea/coffee and cookies even though we had enough food by this time. Once we were done chatting for a bit she took us on a drive around the coast. It was beautiful outside! We saw lots of the coast, including Dunluce Castle & sheep island, and also visited in my opinion the worlds smallest church. During this trip we climbed a cliff that was dangerous thankfully no one fell going up or down it since there was a large chance of that happening. We went into caves, stopped at random places along the coast, just a simply drive to enjoy mother nature. Along the coast in spots your able to see Scotland! Amazing day!


The last week or so other than discovering more of the coast I have been relaxing, typing essays, taking exams, planning more traveling, and going out with people since there is only one week left of classes for this semester. I have no idea where this semester went or how I already spent 12 weeks in classes in this beautiful country. My next travel place is the rest of the Ireland from April 16th-23rd, back for a week then flying out May 2nd to Barcelona!!, will be in mainland Europe seeing Spain, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Netherlands, and France until May 20th when my roommate and I fly out of Paris to Edinburgh, Scotland! there until the 24th of May and then the next day I'll be getting on a plane back to AMERICA (bitter sweet)

Weekend in Belfast

This past weekend 18/2/2011 I spent in the city of Belfast. Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, so you can imagine that it is a very busy place with a lot to see. On Friday, we arrived in Belfast, it is about an hour train ride from Coleraine. We checked into our hostel & meet a girl name Alice from Australia then headed on our way out to dinner to TGIF's!! It was amazing to see all the American sport stuff in there and to see a menu that I was familiar with. I ended up with wings and mozzarella sticks, yummmyyy! After that we did some shopping/looking around that the Victoria Square shopping center. At this shopping center you can take an elevator all the way to the top where there is a globe of windows and see the entire town! It was an amazing view. Since over here everything closes pretty early we went back to our hostel and got ready to go the Student Union at Queen's University in Belfast. There campus is truly a site to see. The buildings at Queen's are all brick and it was built in 1810. It is a hard university to get into.

On Saturday, we started out our morning with breakfast at the hostel and thankfully it had french toast! Delicious and cheap! Then we headed our way out the the City Hall in Belfast and got a tour. It was an amazing building to see and our tour guide was truly inspirational. There is a lot of history here and the history I find very fascinating. The history that I've been told was made more clear during this tour. It also was learning about the Mayor and the legal system here, which is different from America by far. After the tour of the city hall we did some looking around of the city itself and then headed out for SUSHI!!! I have missed this dearly! The sushi place was amazing! It was called a sushi train, so random rolls came out and you were able to pick up whichever ones you wanted and it only cost a £1.80 per plate, which is really cheap! We went back got ready and headed out for another night out.

  Sunday, in my opinion was one of the best days we spent there. We got up ate breakfast, cleaned up our rooms, checked out of the hostel and thankfully they have a room where you can store your luggage for the day even if your not staying the night, and then we headed to the St. Georgie Market. This market is very similar to the farmer's markets in America. Great deals, great food, great merchandise, and great people. I felt like home when I was here. After spending a good chunk of time at the market we head to Falls Road in Belfast, this is where the peace wall is in Belfast. The peace wall splits the catholics from the protestants is my understanding of it. It was amazing to see more of the history here. Another road that the murals are on is called Sandy Row. After seeing some of the murals we headed back to the other side of Belfast down to the Ulster Museum. This museum was probably the most interesting museum I've ever been to. Wish when I was younger I loved museums. We got there an hour and a half before it closed and lets just say we will be returning because we weren't able to make it through it all before it was time to go. The history at this museum went back to the 16th century and was just intriguing to see all the history here and to get a better understanding of it.

Another update

Where to start?? First off, all I can say is that my time here has been amazing yet has already started to fly by! Yesterday, I discovered that I am 4 weeks into this semester and only have 8 weeks left until classes are over/Spring break/my trip around Europe...so last night my roommates, and I started making dates official and booking flights with trips and now our schedule is nicely packed...This weekend Belfast(2/18), next weekend Galway(2/25), two weekends after that we have visitors for both(3/4 & 3/11), then were off to Dublin for St. Patrick's day(3/16), then London(3/24), a couple crazy last couple weeks of school with essays & exams, and then trip through Europe for 2-3 weeks(4/14), then back for some final exams then Scotland and Amsterdam, then home to America on May 25th!!!! It's about to be nuts but exciting!

Last weekend: Saturday, we went to Castlerock right here in Northern Ireland and spent the day there which was beautiful..We stopped first at a local bakery and got tea with a scone for £1.40(which is really cheap) then went and saw the Mussenden Temple, Bishop's & Lion's Gate, Downhill House, and ended our day/afternoon with a drink at a local pub. Castlerock is about an 30minute train ride from Coleraine, so an easy travel for a day trip, but along the coast which was an amazing view.

 Sunday, we took a walk down to the local beach, which has been my home away from home lately. It's a spectacular view of nature, and the ocean. Every time I go down there I end up taking a million pictures just because the conditions of the weather and the waves changes, and I feel as I just can't get enough. When we went down this time though we decide to walk as far as the beach would let us, kind of a good/bad idea since we really didn't know how far it was until the end. But to our surprise at the end was a pathway that went out to a lighthouse. We were able to get pretty close to the lighthouse but couldn't go the entire way due to the waves that day that had been huge. The waves were crashing over the walkway and I was scared either my phone/camera would be damaged if they got wet and that I had the chance to be swept away with the large waves that were coming up. I plan to one day soon to make it out all the way to see the lighthouse up close.

And then last night I made it down to the local beach to see the sunset...there is no better way to end the day of classes and a day in general then this view..in my opinion :)

This Weekend

This weekend we took a trip into Donegal Town in the Republic of Ireland. It was interesting to see the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In the Republic, they measure things completely different ie.speed in Northern Ireland is miles per an hour while in the Republic is kilometres per an hour. Also, in the Republic we had to get currency since they use euros instead of pounds but we got more in euros, which was nice. In Donegal Town, we went to the Donegal Castle which was built in 1474. The inside of the castle was amazing! The only thing was the doorways were very small(short wise) and the stairwells were narrow, but overall a beautiful castle! We also went on a beautiful scenic walk around the Donegal Bay. It was a beautiful area, and an actual trail walk. After this, we walked to our hostel we would be staying at for the night. My first hostel I ever stayed in. It was totally different then what I thought. It was very nice, clean, and homey. The lady who ran it was extremely nice, she made us hot chocolate and gave us cookies by the fireplace before we headed out for drinks for the night.

The next day we headed back in the afternoon, on our way back we stopped in Derry/Londonderry. The Republic calls it Derry and Northern Ireland calls it Londonderry. In Derry yesterday (30/1/11) was the last walk for the 'Troubles'. Derry was the place in Northern Ireland that experienced Bloody Sunday. To see and be part of this walk was amazing and something I will be able to tell my grandchildren I saw in person. The amount of people that attend was beyond my thoughts. There were people from all over the world ie.America & Arabs that came to support the walk. We were fortunate to get a spot next to a elderly gentlemen who knew all about the walk and the people that were affected by the 'troubles'. He showed and told us of the different people while walking by who they were and how they were affected. It was very educational and eye opening. To become more educated about the 'troubles' I picked up a book so I can read and understand them since it is a huge part of what makes Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland what they are. In the picture above is the sign that says "Vindicated (Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign)" Also, in the picture your able to see the thousands of people who filled the streets for this march.

Update

It's been a while since I posted so here is an update. The last two days I've had looonnggg days of classes! Instead of having a class twice or three times a week most of your classes are one day for 3 hours, but no worries they give you a 15-30mins coffee break. But class isn't the exciting part here just the most confusing part since two of my professors are Irish and they speak with a heavy accent and for some reason they put the letter u in random words ie. colour(color) making there lectures a little hard to follow.

Other then the class stuff, the landscape your surrounded with here has just been breath taking to me. The people here are so nice and laid back. The locals are nice as can be and are always willing to help you out. The party life is continuous! I haven't had a night yet where we haven't enjoyed drinks and going out! Here you either walk everywhere or take public transportation, which a lot you end up walking cause the public transportation adds up quickly.
Also, I've learned a ton of words here that are different:
Chips=french fries, jam=jelly, jelly=jello, grand=awesome(they don't use awesome), craic=fun, crisps=chips(which all there chip favors include meat somehow like smokey bacon, rib, others are cheese and onion..they have no similar favors here except pringles is here and they have original and sour cream and onion), lead=leash, litter=trash, toilets=bathrooms(which everywhere you go they aren't heated-its crazy), jumper=sweatshirt, trousers=pants, pants=underwear, wee=a little bit...the list could go on forever, but none the less I am having the time of my life and will be traveling this weekend to Donegal a county here to see more amazing nature and a incredibly old castle. I feel truly blessed to be able to have this experience and to see/appreciate the world. It felt amazing today to take a run to the beach and just be blown away by the scenery I'm surrounded with, I also for the first time today put my hand in the ocean here and touched the grass, which doesn't seem that amazing but the grass feels completely different and I think it just comes down to appreciating nature.

First Adventure

This morning, Rachel and I went out on a walk to a couple of stores to find a few things that we are in need of. We went to the stores but didn't end up finding what we needed. The walked ended up being 3.5 hrs but very well worth it. In Coleraine your surrounded by the ocean, which is beautiful, so this morning on our walk we ventured down to take a look. On our way back we got lost but a very nice elderly couple put us back on the right path and we made it back to our apartment.

Day one

Today, I arrived in Northern Ireland this morning. It was a little hectic getting place to place once I got here, the trains and buses just didn't come on time so we ended up doing a lot of waiting around. Getting used to everything being so different has been a sensory overload. It's beautiful over here and the people are extremely nice (well most of them.) One of the hardest obstacles has been the accent they have, and the different words they use for similar things. Today, I mainly got to Coleraine, which is an hour out of Belfast and settled in. Rachel and I did some exploring of the supermarket and such but mainly relaxed and met people in our village. We ran into some interesting problems like blowing a fuse by trying to plug in our adapter and not being able to lock the door to the apartment, so it was a rough but a good first day. Can't believe I'm actually here, feels like a vacation. Tomorrow will be a much more adventurous day with site seeing and then my roommates are throwing a party to end the night off. Stay tuned for pictures as I will post some most likely tomorrow.