Three weeks later...

I know it's been quite some time since all of this happened, and I apologize for that. Actually, I don't, because it'll still be fun to tell you about it. I hope you bear with me, as this'll be a fairly substantial post.

From Wednesday the 16th through Sunday the 20th, we went on our first group excursion. About once a month, the group goes on a longer trip to a different region of Ireland. September was the month for Southern Ireland, October will be in Northern Ireland, including Belfast and Derry, and November will be Eastern Ireland, mainly in Dublin. But more on October and November later.

We left Wednesday morning, and after a drive of about 45 minutes, we stopped at the house of William Yeats, the Irish author and playwright. We met the literature professor there, and he did some poetry reading for the group. It was pretty cool, but I don't think we were supposed to be there.... it was closed for the season. Oops.

The house of William Yeats, complete with a

medieval tower.

From Yeats' house, we had our next stop at Coole Park, a 1000-acre property owned by Lady Gregory until the late 1920s. She hosted many prominent authors and playwrights, including Yeats, so we took this opportunity again to do some more poetry. We took a walk out to the vanishing lake (literally, the lake drains itself and refills itself with different amounts of rainfall) and listened to the Yeats poem depicting the lake.

After this, we proceeded to Cork, our home for the night. We had the opportunity to stop by the university in Cork (another CSB/SJU program sends students there in the Spring) before checking into our hostel. The University is impressive. Built just ten years before St. John's, it has a beautiful campus. I wouldn't mind going to school there.

University of Cork, AKA Hogwarts.

The following day, we struck out towards Killarney, making three stops along the way. The first stop was Blarney Castle. Of course, the highlight of this site was the kissing of the Blarney Stone, which is rumored to provide anyone who kisses it much eloquence in speech. Aside from the eloquence, the view from the top of the castle is well worth the stop!

Blarney Castle. Feeling eloquent yet?

Second on our list for the day was a memorial for Michael Collins, one of the leaders of the Irish rebellion in the 1920s. He and his party were ambushed while driving to Killarney, and during the fight, he was killed. At the site of the ambush, a cross was built in memory of Collins. We stayed just long enough to get a brief history/how-to speech on guerrilla warfare, given by the one and only Dave "the Hutch" Hutcheson. That in itself is not something to be missed!

Finally, we stopped at the Ross castle, a renovated castle from the 1500s. We got a tour of the castle and a brief history of the region. As with any tour of old buildings, we weren't allowed to take pictures, which is a bummer. The castle was pretty cool.

After spending the night in Killarney, we went on Friday to the Muckross House, the mansion owned by the Muckross family, who hosted prominent guests like Queen Victoria. Again, we got a tour of the house and some time to explore the property. Impressive, to say the least. We didn't have nearly enough time to wander the trails, which is probably the biggest regret about the place, especially since we spent the rest of the day on the bus, driving around the ring of Kerry. It was a spectacle, but a very cramped bus detracted from the experience.

I told ya the Muckross estate was pretty sweet!

This is the view from the back porch.

On Saturday, we drove a short distance to the city of Tralee, home of the Kerry County Museum. This museum claimed the award for the best Museum in Ireland in 2008 (I think), so it was of no surprise that it was such a good exhibit. The display was on medieval Tralee, with a life-sized recreation of the city from the 1400s. Afterwards, we drove across the Dingle Peninsula, returning to Tralee for the night. After having a delicious Philly cheese steak, we celebrated Taylor's 21st birthday with style!

Last, and definitely not least, we drove through the Burren to the Cliffs of Moehr. With cliffs soaring over two-hundred feet above the waves, we had a spectacular site to behold. After adventuring the peaks of the cliffs for an hour or two, we struck out towards home. I'll let the pictures tell the stories!

Of course we followed the rules...

That's what a 210 foot cliff looks like.

Hurling and Soccer and Birthday!

Since last post, we've been really busy. That weekend, we took a trip to Tipperary for the U-21 National Hurling Championship between Galway and Tipperary! Hurling is potentially the coolest sport I've ever watched in my life. Pretty much, it's a cross between rugby, lacrosse, gaelic football, and golf. With constant movement (and tackling), it's a game to enjoy.

Since our host town, Galway, was playing in the championship, we definitely took the opportunity to receive some very Irish culture. Sadly, Galway got creamed, but we had a blast regardless!

Hurling = Awesome

After the hurling match, we just hung around the cottages for a little while. On Monday, we decided to do some birthday celebrating! After some phenomenally exciting classes, a bunch of us booked a bus into Galway to go catch a soccer match. Unfortunately, the Irish weather was not really cooperating:

Our rain-faces

Because it was so cold and rainy and windy, it turned out that only a few of us went to the match, but I can definitely say that it was a TON of fun, an experience I am SO glad I did. The teams playing, Galway United and Sligo, are each middle-of-the-pack in the premier league of Ireland. Fans were passionate, players were good, and the company was great!

The match ended in a 2-2 draw, but Sligo was

definitely the better team that night.

After a cold soccer game, what better way to celebrate than get some birthday drinks?!? Yep, definitely hit up a few pubs in Galway, enjoyed some live jazz, and ended up having a great evening!

More to come about our weekend excursion to Southern Ireland!

Home sweet home

Five guys living here for the next three months. It's bigger than it seems...

Well, maybe it's not, but it's not too terrible.

The extent of our kitchen. And our chef.

We got the bedroom with the sink. Score.

Aaaand best of all, we've got a playground right next to us!

One thing I forgot to mention...

I love Irish pubs.

They rock in so many ways.

That's it.

"With gifts like these I'd live at ease, were I near Galway Bay."

Well, I've been in Galway for about a week now, but I haven't really gotten around to typing a whole ton. Well, now's my chance. Lets start with the first few days:

We flew into Spiddal last Saturday from London, and just spent the evening driving to Galway and getting settled into the hotel. After a meal of fish and chips, we called it a night. Sunday morning found us in the Galway cathedral for an 11:15 mass. First of all, the cathedral is BEAUTIFUL. I don't even know what the architectural style is or anything, but it was great. Almost every color was represented in the three main windows, and they looked phenomenal.

After mass, we walked the streets of Galway. After about an hour, my mom and I stopped at a sweets shop for a panini lunch. I met one of the waiters there and got talking with him. His name is Dave, and he plays in a big band in one of the pubs every Thursday night. We talked about that for a bit, and we found out that we each play trumpet! So he invited me to come listen to them and he said I'd be able to PLAY with the band if I want! AWESOME!

We also got to adventure and explore Spiddal. It's a nice little town, with a gas station, a grocery store, two schools, a few restaurants, and three pubs (I've thoroughly explored all of those, I promise). The Spiddal experience ended with a walk along the seashore.

One place that I really enjoyed was the Connemara region in county Galway to see the Kylemore Abbey. That's a cool looking place. Built in the middle of the woods and on a lake, it's a picturesque site, one that draws plenty of tourists. Invariably, I was one of them.

Thursday was the day where I saw my mom off from the Shannon airport and met up with my classmates for the next semester. We got checked into our cottages around 2:00 on Thursday and took the next few hours to figure out how we're going to fit everything into the place. Fortunately, it all worked out, and by the time dinner was served to us by the hotel staff (chicken, potatoes, veggies, fruit dessert, and tea), we were just about settled in.

We spent Friday in Galway getting acquainted to the city and picking up groceries for the next week. We've got some GREAT meals planned. So far, we've had sausage pizza (more or less homemade) and grilled chicken, both phenomenal meals, courtesy of our designated cottage cook, Bobby.

Finally, we spent the day on the Aran Islands today. After taking the 10:30 ferry (45' ride), we spent the next 4 hours biking around the island, seeing different places. It's been about three years since I last went biking, so I'm expecting to be a bit sore tomorrow. But best of all, I got a chance to buy a much-coveted Aran Island sweater. Pictures to come...

(I apologize for the length of this entry... I'll try to cut it down in the future)