Weekend Away.

If you were driving down the street in Dublin last Friday morning, you probably would have seen a group of 10 tired girls lugging suitcases to a bus station more than a mile away. We never looked more American. After finding our way to the bus stop, we began our travel to Cork, a city in the southern part of Ireland.

The bus ride was beautiful. It was really refreshing to see the green country side, and we were lucky to have a perfectly sunny day. There were so many instances on the bus ride where I saw things that were "SO Ireland." I even said it out loud once and these Irish girls laughed at me. Oh well, it was exciting to finally be seeing the beautiful Irish countryside (full of sheep and old things.)

We made it to Cork, and discovered that the city is a lot like Dublin. Our hostel was only a 10 minute walk from the city center and so we were in a great location. The hostel experience was not as bad as I expected. It was a lot like camp. 10 bunk beds in a room. They even gave us toast for breakfast, which I managed to catch on fire Saturday morning. (Note: Do not put your toast through the toaster twice.)

Friday night we met up with my friend Andrew who graduated from high school with me. He is studying abroad in Cork and introduced us to his friends and showed us the Cork night life, it was great to see a familiar face! Saturday morning we took an hour long bus ride to this fishing town on the coast called Kinsale. Being there was like being on vacation. It was the most beautiful day and we walked around taking hundreds of pictures and just enjoying the sun. We ate lunch at this great restaurant right on the water. Once again I felt like I was on vacation. Later that evening we ordered pizza in the hostel living room (which was actually quite cozy) and made friends with other American students also studying in Dublin. I also got to talk to the guy who saved the hostel from burning down by putting out my toast that caught on fire. He was quite the hero.

Sunday morning we headed to the town of Blarney to visit the castle and kiss the stone. Kissing the Blarney stone was cool, but definitely an overrated experience. Hopefully I didn't contract too many diseases. We ate another great lunch in Blarney then headed back to Cork and finally made our way home to Dublin. It was such a great weekend and there were so many moments where I couldn't believe that this was my life.

Doors in Ireland.

As you can see, my new favorite thing is making collages. Everywhere I go the doors are painted in the greatest colors and I can't help but take pictures of them all. They look especially great all together. Most of these doors are from this weekend which I spent with some friends in Cork, Kinsale, and Blarney. I will post more about the weekend when I get the chance.

Colors of Ireland.

Since Dublin is such a colorful city, I've decided to document it. Here are some of the colors I caputured from just an hour of walking around today. Enjoy!

Don't be fooled by Wicklow.

Today a group of friends and I decided we wanted to have a P.S. I Love You day and visit various places that the movie was set and then watch the movie tonight. Our destination was Wicklow. For those of you who don't know anything about Wicklow, it's the place in the movie where Jerry and Holly meet, and it's really beautiful with lots of greenery and mountains.

After paying 15 euro for our train ticket, we headed down the coast for an hour long train ride. The train took us along the coast where on one side we could see the sea, and the other we could see lots of graffiti. When we arrived we were greeted with a storage establishment and other industrial looking things. Not exactly what we had pictured.

It was pouring when we got off the train, and we quickly figured out that Wicklow National Park (where the movie was filmed) is two hours from the city of Wicklow. Needless to say, we wanted to immediately get back on the train. But instead we were troopers and walked into the town looking for food all the while laughing about how miserably mistaken we were. After stopping at a pub that had no food (but did have free umbrellas) we trekked farther into town and encounted a small hurricane. All of our umbrellas turned inside out (a common occurance around these parts) and somehow we all managed to be crumpled into a group severely struggling with our umbrellas. We were literally the only people outside and people passing by probably thought we were nuts. Oh well.

After roaming the streets that were full of barbers and butchers (such a random combination), we found the one decent place to eat. Al's Diner Pepe Cafe. That was seriously the name. Why? I don't know. We had a pretty great lunch (despite the horrible tap water), but were determined to get back to the station by 3:00 to make the next train back to Dublin. After getting the most exspensive and smallest cup of hot chocolate from a Coffee Shop, we ended up literally running to the train station just in time to make the one we needed.

We laughed the whole way home and joked about telling people how amazing the town of Wicklow was. But instead, I'm warning you now, it is absolutely never necessary for you to visit Wicklow, unless you need a great butcher.

First Week in Dublin.

As of today I've been in Dublin, Ireland for a week and one day, although it feels like I've already been here for several months. Somehow we manage to fit a months worth of activities into every single day and that includes SO. MUCH. WALKING. I think I'm using muscles in my legs that I didn't know existed until being here.

Dublin Business School is about a 35 minute walk from Blackhall Apartments. I'm just now getting the hang of crossing the streets and remembering that I need to look the opposite way to see if cars are going to hit me. People probably know I'm American just because I stand at the crosswalk and look both directions on one-way streets about 5 times before making my move. My dad, Mr. Pedestrian, would be proud.

As I said above the past week has been action packed. I've managed to make some great friends, experience Temple Bar, go to Kilmainham Gaol (which means jail in Gaelic. It was a field trip. I didn't actually go to jail), spend lots of money on groceries, take a train up the coast to the town of Malahide, walk around Trinity College, attend church, and get poured on. We've only had two days of rain and lots more days of sunshine, which I totally didn't expect. It's been great.

For the first two weeks all the American students studying here take an Irish Culture and Society course that has four different topics. We have a class of Irish History, Culture, Literature, and Politics. I've never been more excited about going to class. I think it has something to do with the great stories and accents my Professors have. All of them are extremely interesting to listen to. On Friday we're registering for our semester classes which begin on Monday, I'm really excited about all the fun Irish people I will meet in my classes.

This weekend I believe some friends and I are traveling to Cork, Ireland. It's in Southern Ireland and apparently it's beautiful so I'm really excited about visiting that region.

Being here is truly SUCH an adventure, there is so much to explore and it excites me so much!

Anyways, here are a few pictures from my travels so far (there's way more on Facebook though!)

This is the River Liffey. It runs through the center of Dublin.

Some friends and I in front of the Kilmainham Gaol.