3 Weeks of Traveling Adventures

So again it's been over a month since I've updated this blog. However, this time I kind of have an excuse for the long absence; I just got back from my 3 week Easter Holiday (Spring Break). So much happened over the past couple of weeks, I got to see tons of things, and travel to many cities. And, if I would write about everything I did you would be here for a long time; so I will just leave you with a few points from each place I went and then I can fill you in on the details when I see you in person, or you can ask another time.

*LONDON: spent the weekend there with 3 friends, saw all the major sights (Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, London Bridge, etc.) went to the London Film Museum, a bar that is made completely of ice, including the glasses where you have to wear a special hooded parka and can only stay for 40mins, and best part got to see Wicked! This time with the addition of British and Irish accents.

*CAERNARFON, WALES: went pony trekking through Snowdonia Mountains (found out I now have a small allergy to horses), explored Caernarfon castle, walked the beach, took in the amazing scenery, and watched the sun set along the ocean each night.

*HARROGATE: spent 5 days with family friends in their beautiful house, enjoying my time in the special Pittsburgh sports shrine room :), went to Fountains Abbey, had a picnic at Whitby beach, drove through the Yorkshire Dales, walked around the cute city of York, had High Tea at Betty's, enjoyed a tasty Easter dinner with friends, and also had my first taste of Sticky Toffee Pudding at the Queen's Head... yumm!!

*BELFAST & IRELAND: my parents came to visit for 10 days and we started with the weekend in Belfast. took them on a Black Taxi tour, Giant's Causeway/Carrick-a-Rede bridge tour, and showed them around the city. then we went to Galway for 2 days and biked around the Aran Islands, then picked up a car and my dad drove us to the Cliffs of Moher on our way down to Kilarney. my dad got to drive on the wrong side of the car and road around the Ring of Kerry for his birthday; the scenery on this route is gorgeous!!, the next day we drove to Dublin and spent their last 2 days in the city. we took the bus tour, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Book of Kells, shopped, and enjoyed a few nights of trad. music at the pubs. and tasty restaurants. it was nice to have them here and show them the lovely country!

Now I'm back in Belfast for a week of class reviews and 3 weeks of exam period; I have 2 in class written essay exams, and 1 final essay due by the end of May. I seriously cannot believe that my time here is almost up, I only have less than a month left before flying back to the states on the 3rd. I'm hoping to fit one more trip in to Scotland before I leave, but it blows my mind how fast the time has gone by and that I've actually been living in N.Ireland for almost 4 months now. Anyway, I'll write more about that later, but I'll leave you with a few pictures.
Cheers!!

London...

Snowdonia Mts...

Fountains Abbey...

Whitby beach...

Aran Islands cliffs...

Ring of Kerry...

Weekend In Belgium

So I'm currently sitting in Starbucks reflecting on my recent adventure and thought I would fill you guys in on what I was up to!
This past weekend I visited the country of chocolate, waffles, and lace; also known as Belgium! My friends and I left Dublin super early Thursday morning and flew on RyanAir into Brussels arriving around 11am. After riding into the city we spent the day in Brussels and walked around the Grand Place square which is a bunch of old, castle like buildings with gorgeous architecture. We then visited the Menneken Pis (peeing boy) statue which is quite odd, but the people of Belgium are very proud of this little fountain statue and have all kinds of things shaped after it, especially chocolate of course. And people dress it up on a daily basis in different costumes for fun. Before leaving the square we each enjoyed a delicious Belgium waffle from one of the many waffle stands, a must have in Belgium!! Next stop was Mini-Europe, which is a park that holds specific famous buildings from every country in Europe scaled down to 1/25th of their actual size. It was amazing how exact and detailed these buildings are, and now I can say I visited all of Europe in an hour! We left there and walked across the street to the Atomium which is a structure of an iron crystal enlarged to 165 billion times and was built in the 50's for the worlds fair. It's made up of 9 spheres and is about 33 stories tall; each sphere is connected by either stairs or escalators. We went to the top and looked out over Brussels city, and then made our way down through the different exhibits in each sphere. After our day in Brussels we took a train up to Bruges where we were staying for the weekend.

We got to Bruges around 7pm on Thursday and moved into our cute little B&B right on the canal. On Friday we woke up early and went to the Chocolate Museum and learned all about how chocolate is made and the different products of Belgium. To our delight we got to sample a little sweet at the end of the tour. We then walked down the street to the Fry Museum to learn about the history of the potato, who knew there was so much information on fries! At the end of the tour you can purchase the famous Belgian fries and even though I don't like fries, my friends told me we were at the fry museum in Belgium so I must get some. Personally I didn't find them that good, sorry to disappoint or offend, you could probably get a better review from a fry lover. We spent the rest of the day walking around the little, but beautiful city and visiting the different parks and hundreds of chocolate stores (there are literally at least 6 chocolate stores on every street). On Saturday, we were blessed with the best weather so far this semester; blue skies, sunshine, and 65 degrees!!! After breakfast we took a boat tour through the canals and learned about the city of Bruges, the city is just beautiful! My friend Sarah and I then rented bikes and enjoyed the gorgeous hour and a half ride along the canal up to the North Sea. We ate our sandwiches in a little park looking out over the water, and then got back on our bikes in search of the beach. About 15mins later we found a huge, white sand beach, parked out bikes and headed down in the sand. On our walk down to the water we kept saying to each other how we couldn't believe that we were on the beach, in Belgium, and it was 65 degrees; just amazing!! We spent an hour enjoying the beach, and taking pictures before heading back to our bikes. After a great afternoon, we arrived back in the city around 6:30pm, grabbed dinner, walked around, and pretty much called it a day since we had a very early morning ahead of us. Sunday was a LONG day of traveling, we got up at 4:45am and after a taxi, train, bus, and plane we departed ways in Dublin at noon and I headed back here to Belfast. It was another wonderful weekend adventure, and I definitely recommend going to Bruges if you ever have the opportunity, it's a great little city with very friendly people and the best chocolates!!!

Yummy waffles!

 Atomium

 London in Mini-Europe

 Bruges City

 En route to the beach

 On the beach in Belgium!

CHEERS!!

Killary Adventure, West Coast & St. Paddy's!!

Sorry for the long absence, I've been busy with school and things around here.  I'll try to catch you up on my week and a half of traveling around Ireland with friends, but you can ask me for more details if you want some time.....

IFSA Killary Adventure Weekend (March 11th-13th):
The study abroad program I came through took us to this amazing hostel/adventure centre in the mountains of county Galway for a fun filled outdoors weekend trip. Let me just start by saying it was probably one of the best weekends of my life doing things I probably would never do back home! Friday night we enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by the fun, young, and super nice staff who are all free spirited, outdoorsy people from all over the world; and then we had a huge table quiz with our group of 60+ and staff. After the quiz my friends and I stayed in the dining room and played multiple games of UNO with some of the staff members and got to know them better. The next morning we had breakfast and then started our day full of adventures in the outdoors. My friend Sarah and I chose the Ringo & Gorge walk trip which is tubing and waterfall climbing. To set the scene outside for you, we walked out to a breathtaking view of the river laying between huge snowcapped mountains and a temperature of about 42 degrees fahrenheit. Our brave group of 5 asked ourselves 'how stupid are we to go tubing in this freezing water?' the whole walk to the boat. Wearing only already wet and cold wetsuits we hopped in the boat already shivering and sped away from shore. When it was my turn to tube I plopped in the ringo and held on as best as I could with numb fingers and off I went flying along the 32 degree water, wind blowing in my face. But none of the 'miserable' conditions bothered me, I was tubing down a river between gorgeous snowcapped mountains in the middle of March, in IRELAND!! All I could do was smile, laugh, and try to take in the amazing scenery around me... without falling out. When I was done I got back in the boat, and the cold hit me like a ton of bricks, I was completely numb head to toe, shivering all over, and now really wet, but still smiling. After everyone had their turn we were asked if we wanted another go and I said absolutely!! When we got back to shore we played a round of tag to try to get feeling back to our bodies before hitting the waterfall. Gorge walking is a terrible name for this adventure, it was beautiful!! Sadly I don't have any pictures from it because I was literally up to my neck in water a few times. We climbed wet, slippery rocks through rushing water like spiderman, waded thigh deep through pools of water, and a few times stepped off rocks and immediately were up to our necks swimming in water with no bottom to be found. I cannot even begin to tell you how unforgettable this experience was! After changing into dry clothes and having a tasty lunch, my friends and I went back out into the great outdoors to hit the tallest rock climbing wall in Ireland and the giant swing. We had fun climbing the wall and making games out of things, then we took our turn on the giant swing. This swing is a contraption that 2 people sit in then it pulls you backwards and up about 60ft in the air. Once at the top you pull the cord and go flying back and forth through the air, it was awesome and we screamed pretty loud!! After another delicious meal we danced the night away with the staff and crazy 80yr old DJ. The next morning we headed out to our final session, the high ropes course pole climb and trapeze jump. Sarah B and I went first, she climbed the 30ft telephone pole and pulled herself up onto the 2x2 small platform, then it was my turn. After getting to the top I managed to get myself up, over, and on top of the remaining half of the platform. We stood there swaying in the air for a few moments then on the count of 3 we jumped out and grabbed onto the trapeze bar a few feet in front of us; and then were slowly lowered back to the ground 1 at a time. It started to snow while we were waiting for the others, and after everyone was done we went back to the building to eat lunch and get back on the bus to leave. None of us wanted to leave this place, the whole package was incredible and I'll never forget it!!

West Coast: Burren, Cliffs of Moher & Aran Islands (March 13th-16th):
On Monday the 3 Sarah's and I took a bus tour to the Burren hills and climbed them while listening to our tour guide tell us facts and stories about Ireland, then we continued our way through old fishing villages to the Cliffs of Moher. I was disappointed to see that they have recently built walls back from the cliffs to prevent you from going to the edge, but it was still amazing. Pictures just don't do them justice! We walked around and snapped photos, tried to spot the Statue of Liberty, and enjoyed the sunshine then got back on the bus to continue on. We had lunch in a village and made a few stops to take pictures along the coast and then spent the night walking around Galway. The next day we took a bus and ferry to get to the Aran Islands, and we were blessed with another gorgeous day!! Once on the island we rented bikes and made our way to the far end of the island where the giant cliffs are. We climbed the hill not knowing what we were going to see at the top; and what we saw was absolutely breathtaking!! Although these cliffs aren't as tall as the Cliffs of Moher, we could go to the edge of these and take in the scenery. It was so silent and peaceful up there, at first it was nerve-racking being so close to the 286ft drop, but then  we started to feel more 'comfortable' and daring and enjoyed taking photographs. I sat on the edge and just took in the view of the ocean, horizon, and blue skies, it felt as if I was in my own world away from everything. It was hard to leave this place, but after an hour or so we went back down the hill and biked to the ferry and headed back to the city. The next morning I jumped on the bus to head to Dublin.

Dublin St. Paddy's Day!! (March 16th-18th):
Dublin is pretty much the heart of everything 'Irish' on St. Paddy's Day and it was a great experience to be there for the great holiday! However, it was VERY different from St. Paddy's day in the states. The parade pretty much had nothing to do with Irish traditions and there was no green to be found (but I did win a big leprechaun hat by answering a question in the pre-parade trivia game). The parade was based off of a new children's book titled Brilliant! And I will never read this book to any child I know, the parade was super freaky and very strange but entertaining none the less. After the parade we hung out around the city and enjoyed the festivities and music, which were no where near as crazy as festivities back home.

I arrived back in Belfast Friday afternoon and then attended the Ulster Rugby game that night. It was an unforgettable trip filled with many memories that I will never forget!

Me tubing...

Sarah & I jumping to the trapeze...

Outside of the Adventure Centre...

Cliffs of Moher...

 View from the coast of Aran Islands (tubing Mts. in the distance)

 Cliffs on Aran Islands...

 Just taking it all in...

 At the St. Paddy's parade...

Over a month...

Wow, sorry for the long delay in updating! I have now been living in Belfast, Ireland for over a month. It's crazy to think about; some times it feels like I've been here for months, and sometimes it feels like I just arrived. Since my last post I've tried out the fencing and swimming clubs. Fencing is a no, it was me and about 10 awkward guys who I can best describe as the boys who are last to be picked in gym class. For the most part I enjoyed the swim practice and was able to keep up; not sure if I will be a regular, but I am going to try to attend some practices. I've been on a few weekend trips away from Belfast, a couple more coming up, and have a few I'm currently planning. Although I never realized how stressful finding plane/train tickets to and from different countries as well as places to stay and things to do in those countries could be!! I just finished my 5th week of classes, and the readings are starting to build up.

Last weekend I traveled down south to Cork with a few friends who are studying at NUI Maynooth outside of Dublin. It was an interesting and fun weekend. Let's just say it was my first experience staying in a hostel, and I learned that I'm not a good 'hostel person'. I'm going to try not to judge all hostels off of this one, but I can't guarantee anything. I was in a room with 6 other girls, thankfully they were all from our group. I slept on a bottom bunk that was missing most of the springs on the right side of the bed so all night I kept rolling into this hole and couldn't get out. The other people staying on our hall were up all night screaming and jumping around, so there was very little sleep going on at night. And surprisingly around 3am some random girl punched in 'our' combination to the lock on our door and entered our room, stood looking around for a few moments then walked out. She's lucky she walked out when she did because my friend Sarah and I were about 5 seconds away from jumping her! The bathroom situation was interesting as well. The showers run like the sinks in public bathrooms where you push a button and get about 5 seconds worth of water and then it stops. So it was uhh quite the adventure to take a shower. There are some other hostel stories that I could add, but I will refrain.

So what was I doing in Cork, besides trying out hostel life?... We spent most of Saturday morning and afternoon on the Blarney Castle grounds. I climbed the very narrow, steep, and spiral staircases to the top of the castle to lay on my back and lower my self down a couple feet to kiss the Blarney Stone! Now apparently I am granted the gift of Eloquence for 7yrs. It all happened very fast, in about 6 seconds, I'm pretty sure I smacked my nose off of the stone. After the castle we walked down Daffodil lane, at least that's what we named it; there were hundreds of bright daffodils along both sides of the path leading through the fields. We were blessed with amazing, Spring like weather, which made our time outside even better! Saturday night we spent the evening in a traditional Irish pub called Sin é and listened to a Trad band play all night...... Sunday we took a bus an hour away to a small fishing village called Kinsale that sits on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We walked the path along the water to a fort and then back for a delicious lunch outside at a small café. We then jumped back on the bus and headed back into Cork, our group bus left at 6pm, and we arrived back in Maynooth around 10pm. I was up at 5am Monday morning to walk to to train station in the dark; took the train to Dublin where I jumped on another train back to Belfast in order to attend my 10am class (which I was 15mins late to due to my train arriving in Belfast 20mins later).... The weekend was definitely a new experience/adventure for me! I've decided that my travel experiences are providing me with great material for a fairly decent book or standup comedy act, and I'm sure I will gain even more stories as the semester continues.

Blarney Castle... the top left corner of the castle is where you hang upside down to kiss the stone 

(there are 2 metal bars attached to the stone)

 My turn to kiss the stone...

 fort ruins in Kinsale looking out to the water, there were tons of sailboats out for the day

Classes, River, North Coast....

**As of last Tuesday I am finally enrolled in the 3 classes I need to take here at Queen's. I'm taking Anthropology of Modern Social Dance, Twentieth Century British Theatre, and Intro. to Film Studies 2. I'm hoping as the semester goes on that these classes will grow on me, especially the first 2 I mentioned. The descriptions they gave me online are pretty much the opposite of what these classes are about, so hopefully all will end well at the end of the semester. I only have class Monday-Wednesday, however that may sound very nice, the catch is that here you spend a lot less time in classes and a TON of time doing outside readings and research that you have to find/figure out on your own (definitely a change from academics in the States).

**Last Wednesday afternoon, my friend Sinead (from Philly, part of my IFSA program) and I went down to the Queen's Rowing team's recruit session at the boathouse. We were asked to join last week so we thought we'd go see what it was all about. After being introduced to the girls we went down to the storage barn and the 2 of us, 3 other recruits, and 2 current team members carried the boat out, flipped it over, walked it down into the Lagan river, attached the oars, got in, and pushed out into the water. Let me tell you this whole process is a lot harder and more challenging then it seems or appears!! We spent 2 hours out in the water in the rain learning different skills and practicing rowing. I was told that I looked like I'd rowed before and that it usually takes people a month to get to where I was currently. However, even with the compliments and pressure to join I'm still not sure if it's the right thing for me to do here. The girls were all super nice, I don't know if I love it enough to row down the river a couple times a week (2 early morning practices as well) I may try another practice this Wednesday, I just can't decide.

**This past weekend the 100 other American students studying in Ireland through IFSA Butler Univ. program were up here in Belfast for a Northern Ireland trip. We enjoyed dinner Thursday night together at their hotel and then left early Friday morning to ride up to the North Coast. Our first stop was the Carrick-a Rede rope bridge, a narrow rope bridge a couple yards long that goes between the mainland  and a small island, and hangs 80ft above cliffs and crashing water from the sea. It was a great experience, I was quite scared at first but as long as I didn't look down it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. 2nd stop as the remains of the Dunluce Castle; it was really cool to walk around this place and take some interesting pictures. 3rd and final stop was the Giants Causeway; absolutely stunning!!!! Definitely a must see if you go to Northern Ireland. There are over 38,000 perfectly smooth and almost all hexagonal rock pillars piled all together along the water. You can walk over them and look out into the sea, it's completely breathtaking and pictures just don't do it justice. After a long day and lots of walking, I enjoyed the bus ride back listening to the P.S. I Love You soundtrack on my iPod (I found it quite fitting for the day).

**On Saturday we enjoyed a Black Taxi tour around Belfast learning about the "Troubles and Conflicts", and had the opportunity to sign the peace wall. After that a couple of us went to St. George's Market and enjoyed fresh food, music, and looked around the different booths. It was a gorgeous, sunny day (a rarity here) so we decided to take a boat tour of the Titanic harbor. Let's just say it was interesting haha, a little bit too long, and too slow for us, but we enjoyed the beautiful weather on the deck. Later that night we went to 2 old pubs in the city and listened to traditional Irish music, and enjoyed our time together before my Dublin friends headed back to their schools.... Overall it was great weekend!!

Beautiful coast

 Me on the rope bridge

Castle remains

 Giants Causeway

Unforgettable Super Bowl!!!!

Well I bet you're all wondering if, how, and where I watched the Super Bowl last night........

I watched the game live at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin!!!! That's right, I was lucky enough to attend the U.S. Embassy's 2011 Super Bowl party, and it was awesome!!! (minus the ending score...)

Yesterday morning I hopped on a train from Belfast to Dublin and met my IFSA friend Sarah at the train station in Dublin. We walked around, had lunch, then went to find our hotel down the road from the Embassy. After checking in we just relaxed, watched TV, and took a nap for awhile. Around 10:30pm we left for the party, walked down the road and waited in line to go through security. After that we were ushered through the courtyard and into the building. Inside they had a big projection screen showing the game, couches and folding chairs to sit in, and snacks and drinks for us. I was very happy to purchase my Superl Bowl XLV special edition Terrible Towel that they had specially shipped over from Pittsburgh for this party! There were around 100 people there and pretty much all but 2 were Steelers fans :) It was so cool to be surrounded by all these people wearing black and gold and waving their Terrible Towels proudly all the way over here in Ireland!!!! Awesome feeling to be a true Steelers fan. It was a rough game to endure and quite painful in the end to have to leave at 3:30am with my head down in disappointment and my Terrible Towel hanging off my shoulder. I couldn't help but feel that terrible superstitious Steelers guilt that if I would've been home in the Burgh watching this game like every other game/Super Bowl we would have won. I know this sounds stupid and ridiculous, but c'mon true Steelers fans out there you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't tell me that if you don't wear your "lucky" jersey or something for a game that we lose you don't have that small "what if?" question in the back of your head; and feel partially at fault for the loss. haha, oh the trials a fan must face.... Win or lose the Steelers had an excellent season, I love them no matter what, and I had one of the most unforgettable nights of my life!!!!

And if for some reason you don't believe my story about this amazing adventure check out the photos the Embassy photographer took last night and see if you can find me in the crowd :)
Embassy Super Bowl Party

Leaving the hotel, ready for the game!!!

Fun Stuff!!

Not too much has happened since my last post, except for the fact that I still don't have a 3rd class to take, oh and my birthday!!! haha Went out to dinner and movie with a couple friends, thanks for all the lovely wishes from back home :)

Differences:
* Well the obvious driving on the opposite side of the road (I've almost been hit multiple times!!)
* Although they speak English, the accents are so strong and slang words are used in every sentence that I usually feel like an idiot asking people to repeat what they said more than once so I can understand
*Stay at school and go out every weeknight staying up till like 3am (loud!), then everyone goes home on the weekends to work and have mommy cook them meals and do their laundry... nice haha
* You can't split checks, and they don't have to-go boxes. (some restaurants will, but they give you an annoyed look when you ask)
* Classes work as 1 Lecture a week plus sometimes 1 additional seminar/tutorial everything else is all outside, independent readings/research that you think pertains to the specific subject.... scary!!!
* Being a Professor is actually a higher rank than a Doctor, most "tutors" are Doctors here.
* What's a curb??? Here curbs are pretty much another part of the road; they drive and park on them!
* Mercedes Benz, BMW, Range Rover, Porsche... all pretty much common cars.
more too come.....
New Vocabulary:
Trainers---------------> Tennis Shoes
Jumper----------------> Sweater
Wee--------------------> Little
Heya-------------------> Hello
Cheers-----------------> Thanks!
Bog--------------------> Bathroom
Snog-------------------> Kiss
Bake-------------------> Mouth
Crack/Craic----------> Fun/Plans... yes I was confused when asked me if I had any craic
Biscuit-----------------> Cookie
Poke-------------------> Ice Cream Cone
Bap--------------------> Bun/Roll
Soda-------------------> Soda Bread... not a drink!
Black Stuff-----------> Guinness
What about ye?------> How Are You?
Cheerio---------------> Good-Bye
Bangers & Mash----> Sausage and Mashed Potatoes

Oh and I forgot to mention... Weather: 1, Elaina & Umbrella: -1!!

2nd Day of owning this umbrella & the intense wind snapped all the wiring on my walk to my dorm

My Starbucks birthday latte & cupcake I treated myself to