It's Been Awhile

The Celtic Cross

Oops... I haven't posted anything in a while, sorry. While I may feel like I am on a four month vacation, I'm not and I've had assignments due the last couple of weeks. Does the importance of information systems in a business sound interesting to you? Because it sure doesn't to me, but that was what I've been researching and writing a lovely paper for my Business Communications and Information Technology class.
    The weather here in Dublin is getting colder. It has been gloomy skies about 80% of the time I've been here, but the past week I have felt a serious chill in the air. The average high temperature is between 45 and 50 degrees. BRRR. Luckily, it hasn't been too rainy, but I am sure that will change soon enough.
   I must say while in Ireland, the most excitement I've had this past week has been watching the Giants play in the World Series. With the eight hour time difference the games don't start till about 1am, but I've been dedicated to trying to watch as much as possible. Last night I KNEW they were going to win so I made sure to stay awake. It wasn't until after 4am that the Giants got that run in during the tenth inning. I am so proud of the Giants and so excited for them to win again after just two years!! It makes me miss home more knowing that I am not in the Bay Area for all the celebrations and the parade. I went in 2010 and it was an incredible experience. So everybody going please take lots of photos and send them to me!

   Last weekend our American group had another planned tour day with Over The Top Tours. It was their "Celtic Experience" where they took us to Celtic based locations outside of Dublin. Here are some photos:

First Stop; Fourknocks Passage Tomb

Inside the tomb

Inside the Fourknocks Tomb

Hill of Slane

These photos are all from the Hill of Slane. In the year 432, St. Patrick lit the first Paschal fire on the hill in defiance of the pagan King who resided in the town of Tara.

 

 

Just Another Day in the Classroom

  Today was Irish History & Culture class day, meaning it was field trip day. Here is where we were today,

The Dublin City Wall and Gate from 1240AD.

Ireland has such awesome architecture

At Dublinia, a museum all about the Medieval Times and the Vikings

Learning

Making new friends everyday

What's my occupation? History Hunter, obviously.

A Weekend Getaway

   This past weekend was spent in the beautiful city of London! Lucky for us, the entire trip was preplanned and paid for with our program. Flights, hotel, and sight seeing tickets were all included.We made our way to London Friday afternoon for our quick weekend getaway. Upon checking into the hotel we immediately went on the search for dinner. What did we end up eating you may ask? Chipotle. It never ceases to amaze me how much American food I eat while studying abroad.

   Since it was late in the day when we arrived we didn't do any sightseeing. Instead we decided to go to a club in the center of the city. It was a great way to spend our first night in London.

Buckingham Palace

On Saturday we were up bright and early to do the hop-on/ hop-off tour bus.
   Our first stop was the Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately there was no sign of the Queen.

After spending time at the Palace and tossing a penny with a wish into the fountain we were on our way to Westminster Abby, The House of Parliament, and Big Ben.

Westminster Abby

Big Ben.

 Did you know it's the bell inside the clock that is named Big Ben? I always thought it was just the name of the clock... Fun Fact

The House of Parliament.

The House of Parliament has to structurally be my favorite place in London. The building is incredible, the amount of detail and design is so cool and the fact that it was built in the 11th century amazes me.

 The London Eye is the giant Ferris wheel in the middle of the city. I've been told it takes about 30 minutes to go all the way around and once at the top you can see all of London, how awesome, right? Unfortunately we did not go on it. Eighteen pounds (twenty-eight U.S. Dollars) wasn't in our college sized budgets.

  We made a few more stops while on the bus including a popular market. Before looking around at all the vendors tables we made a dash to the nearest food. There was an area in the downstairs patio where Paella was being cooked for the masses. I've never had Paella, nor did I know what it was. So I took a shot and bought a plate full. Truthfully, I don't think I'll ever be eating it again.

 We then made our way back to our hotel where we took much needed naps and then went out to a pub just around the corner from us.

On Sunday we had prepaid tickets for the Tower of London. The Tower was once a prison and a place for torture and death. The Crown Jewels also reside here, but unfortunately due to strict security I couldn't get any photos of them.

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

     Since we didn't have too much time before our flight back to Dublin, we got on the Tube (Subway) to a very popular park called Primrose Hill. After a few wrong turns and some confusion of our location we finally made it and made the walk up to the top. It was a gorgeous park and once at the top we had a skyline view of London.

    It was a very quick weekend and I am glad we got to make the trip. London is such a large city I think we could have used a couple extra days, but it was still a great time.

Happy Monday from Ireland

Hope everybody has a great week!

My everyday view from the dorms

Cliffs of Moher

Yesterday a group of us got together and took a bus tour to my favorite place in Ireland, The Cliffs of Moher. Our day started at the lovely hour of 6am where we took a bus to downtown Dublin where we got on our "coach bus" for the day. In the brochure you're promised a big cozy bus, but some how we got stuck on the mini coach bus that was not cozy...

Don't let the picture fool you, it was mini.

This was one of those tours that makes multiple stops so our first one was to Limerick City to see King John's Castle. This is what we saw...

It was little bit foggy

So I took a picture of a cute little church instead

The next hour or so of our drive was full of fog so I spent a good amount of it taking a much needed nap. As we approached the Cliffs of Moher the fog died down and it was an incredibly sunny day at the Cliffs as well as warm! The last time I visited The Cliffs of Moher it was overcast, cold and extremely windy so I was excited to get some sunny photos and spend some time in the warmth.

The Cliffs of Moher

South Cliffs

O'Brien's Tower

After a couple hours of exploring we were back on the mini bus for our next stop, The Burren in County Clare. Our tour guide told us these are like the mini cliffs, but whenever you look of the edge of a cliff they never appear "mini." The ground was all a bunch of broken up rocks and had an edge with no protection. If we took one wrong step we could have taken a straight down trip to the water. Even though my anxiety was high, I was feeling adventurous and got as close to the edge as possible for some good picture opportunities.

The Group

Yep, that's me. Such a dare devil

Mini Cliffs

One more step and I was headed for the water

After putting our lives in danger we were off again. We made a couple quick stops as we made our three hour drive back to Dublin. Ireland is such a gorgeous place with so many sights to see that I hope everybody has the chance to make the trip to this amazing country.

Corcomroe Abbby

At the Corcomcroe Abbby

Corcomroe Abby

Corcomcroe Abby