Medieval Times (Or, Why Irish Public Services are Really Annoying)

Another day trip this weekend!

This time Ian, Hannah, and I headed to Trim, a town about an hour away, to see a castle! Our Early Irish History professor had suggested it to us because it is the largest Anglo-Norman castle still intact in Ireland. I've been wanting so see a castle ruin since we got here so I was really excited! We decided to take a bus to Trim and headed to the Bus Eireann (like Greyhound) station. Ian was really hoping we'd get a double-decker bus. Do you think we got one?

We sat front and center on the top floor and couldn't stop grinning the whole ride. As we got closer to the town, we could see the castle in the distance. The bus driver continued to pass bus stops and we waited for him to stop so we could get off and head to the castle.

Then we watched the castle fade away into the distance as we drove through Trim and on to the next town.

Our faces fell as we realized something had gone wrong. Ian went to talk to the driver to investigate.

Apparently Bus Eireann is not exactly like Greyhound. The bus doesn't automatically stop, you have to tell the driver when you want to get off. Only we didn't know that, and since we were sitting on top we had no examples to follow in any of the other passengers. Luckily, the bus was heading back through Trim so we did get off in the right place, but for awhile I was extremely mad that we had messed up.

But when we got there, it was all worth it. The tour of the castle was fantastic and interesting with lots of facts about how the family living in it would have been defended. After the castle tour, we walked around to see some of the other ruins in the area. Here are the pictures!

View from the top of the castle

View from the top of the castle

  

P.S. Creepy Picture of the Day:

These were on top of the tomb of a husband and wife. Wtf?

Out of the Classroom (Or, Why I Wish I Cared About More Things That Are Probably Important)

One of the cool things about Champlain Dublin is that most classes take you out on excursions during class time. So far it seems like I'll be out and about at least once a week, but since it's the beginning of the semester the teachers are going overboard with getting us out there.It's really great to be able to incorporate our environment into our education and it's great that the teachers are taking advantage of all of Dublin's opportunities.

However.

The places we go aren't always the most exciting. And I don't always give a crap about the stuff we're seeing.

The other day our science lab went to the Geological Museum at Trinity, but it was really just a single, small room in the Geology department, past some offices at the top of some rickety wooden stairs. The displays looked kind of like science fair material that a kid's parents has helped them on. We wandered around for 45 minutes pretending to look at the rocks and minerals until our teacher asked us for examples of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, something I remember learning in fourth grade.

And then there was today. Oy.

The day started at 9:45 when we were supposed to meet our Writing the City teacher so we could go on a tour of Dublin Castle to "inspire our writing." But something got messed up with our times, and this just didn't fly with our teacher, who is a stickler for time. When we have breaks in class she informs us at least 5 times to "be back at 10:45," and the email reminding us about the castle visit gently reminded us, "Don't be late!" So instead of waiting around, we went to the Chester Beatty Library. Chester Beatty was this American guy who did some stuff but his biggest claim to fame was that he liked collecting rare books. So there were two exhibits, one of Muslim illustrations of mythology and one of various ornate religious texts from different cultures. They were cool to look at, but it was hard to make myself read all of the contextual background information, so basically I just wandered around looking at all the pretty pictures. Then we found out that our teacher hadn't even ever been in the library before, nor did she deign to look at it now. Also, no photography was allowed inside. That would become the theme for the day.

Then it still wasn't time for our tour of the castle, so we went to the City Hall building. Except we had already been there. We went into an exquisitely boring exhibit about the history of Dublin as a city and its government. We were told to wander around until out tour guide came in. The walls were stone painted over with pure white, and by the time half an hour was over, I wanted to do anything except stay in there. Finally our old, short, and stout tour guide came in and we found out our tour group included what appeared to be the Dublin chapter of the Red Hat Society. The old ladies fidgeted just as much as we did as our guide stood entirely still and competed with disembodied audio-visual presentation voices. He was explaining that under the building used to be used as torture chambers.

"Now you know what will happen to you if you act up," the Head Old Lady joked.

"What did she say?" asked another old lady.

"Torture chamber!" answered another.

Classic.

Then, after finding out that we didn't have time to visit the rotunda room (good thing, because we had already been there as well) it was finally time to visit Dublin Castle. It was definitely the best part of the day.

Dublin Castle is actually more of a palace now. It used to be a Norman castle made of stone, but there was a fire that destroyed most of the structur. Only one of the original towers still remains.

Anyway, our teacher herded us in to the waiting room for the tour, bought our tickets,

And abandoned us. She had to go somewhere, she said, so she left. I was tempted to leave too. But I decided not to waste a free tour in the castle. I won't bore you with all the history, but it was basically a lot of fancy rooms. But our tour guide was very good, and we even got to see some of the old castle that they found underground. Here are a few pictures, but they came out kind of bad.

Room where the fancy ladies with giant hoop skirts would congregate. Now a reception space.

Throne room. No longer used, and when the Queen of England visits in the summer, she will be the first British monarch to visit in 100 years, and the first to not sit in the throne.

The room where the Irish president is sworn in every 7 years.

Steps from the original castle

Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square

After Writing the City, I had another class, and yet again we were going on a tour. I'm in two lit classes and this was a combined literary walk for both classes. First we went to the house where Oscar wilde was born and  Merrion Square, neither of which I cared much about and both of which left me shivering outside. Oscar kind of looked like he was smirking at us and saying, "Why the hell would you want to come stare at a statue of me?" even though I am reading The Picture of Dorian Gray right now, I still couldn't bring myself to care because it was so cold out and I had had a long day. The one cool part was when we went to Trinity yet again (starting to feel like I should have just gone to school there as apparently that's where all the important stuff is) to see the Book of Kells and the old library. The library made me feel like I was in the Hogwarts library so I really enjoyed that part.

For now, I'm kind of done with standing around looking at exhibits and old stuff, although I'm still glad that we get to go see all of these famous Irish sites in class. Even though it may not all thrill me, I'm still so grateful that I get to be here in Dublin!

Off We Go (Or, Why My Weekends Are No Longer For Relaxing)

This weekend was quite an adventure!

The nun, the criminal, and the anonymous woman

The fun started on Saturday morning when we went to Saint Michan's Church to view their crypts and check out some mummies. We climbed down some steep stone steps to the dark underground chambers where our group barely fit. Our guide was a dramatic man who had clearly rehearsed his creepy descriptions of who each of the four mummies had been a hundred times but still loved his job. We saw the bodies of an anonymous woman, a nun, and a criminal and also got to touch the hand of a dead crusader. There were also other areas in the crypt that contained stacked coffins, a few skulls, a display with a death mask and a document detailing the violent ways two men were to be killed, and even a chamber that is still being used by the family who owns it today. It was really creepy but also really cool.

After the crypts, Ian, Patrick, Rachel, and I decided to go to Phoenix Park, one of the largest enclosed parks in Europe. It is 1, 750 acres so we didn't see anywhere near the entire thing, but it is a place that we will definitely have to go back to because it was beautiful even in the  winter. We decided to tackle one area of the park for the day--the Dublin Zoo. The zoo here is fun because even though the animals have, for the most part, ample space to run around, it is easy to view them and there are different points you can see from. I felt kind of like a little kid as I ran to see a tiger prowling his domain and a red panda darting around in the branches. It was a great time, but it started to get cold and our feet were starting to ache, so we headed back home to relax.

Rachel and me on the monument

Patrick, Ian, and Rachel on a monument in Phoenix Park

At the zoo!

Ian riding a rhino

Today we went on a day trip to another seaside town, this time to Bray. There is a cliff walk that connects Bray to another town called Graystones, and we decided to hang out on the beach a bit before making the journey.

Darin, Ian, and Hannah by the water

Then, we headed for the mountains you can see behind Hannah. For awhile we stayed on the cliff walk path, but before long we decided to deviate from the crowded trail and head up the mountain path, and we were seriously glad we did. Even though the climb was tough and, at times, seemingly straight up and down, we managed to scramble to the top and were rewarded with stunning views of Bray and the surrounding mountains. We looked down at the dizzying cliffs and could barely see the path we had left below us. We ate lunch at the top next to some grazing horses, explored the mountain a bit more, and tried to tear our eyes away from the spectacular view so we could head to Graystones.

Ian, Sam, Hannah, and Patrick on the way up!

 

Top of the world! See the horses down there?

Bray

 Then we found some pieces of coconut on the ground, so Ian and I reenacted Monty Python and the Holy Grail for a bit.

We weren't exactly sure which way to go to get to Greystones, so we took what looked like the logical path. Once we started walking we could see Graystones below us in the distance, so we went what looked like the most logical direction. Eventually, though, we started to suspect that we may have been going the wrong way. I admit, I had done a bit of scouting and found a trail that seemed to lead the direction we wanted, so we followed it down. Turns out, it wasn't technically the right way.

Eventually, after trespassing only a tiny bit more, we found our way to Graystones, but we were so sore and tired that we walked right to the DART station and headed home. Then we had a 20 minute walk back to the apartments, but luckily Rachel had delicious homemade sugar cookies waiting for us when we got there! It was an amazing weekend with so much to see, but I'm exhausted now. Time to finish some homework and head to bed, Earth Science and Early Irish History in the morning. It's been go, go, go since we got here, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

History Lesson (Or, Why History Nerds Should Come Here)

http://tinyurl.com/4ktjscx

The past couple of days have been exciting! I've been going to the rest of my classes, exploring more of the city, and having a great time! On Tuesday my Early Irish History class went to the National Museum of Ireland where we saw artifacts from the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages of Ireland's history. The professor is extremely knowledgeable on all aspects of prehistoric life in this country and it was incredible to walk around the museum and think that people actually used all of the tools, pottery, jewelry, and household items we were seeing. We even got to see several "bog bodies," slightly mangled, sacrificed bodies that were discovered in bogs. (Unfortunately, photos weren't allowed.) My other classes, like Writing the City and my two literature classes, also have excursions lined up to various places of interest around the city--it will be awesome to get out of the classroom and really experience the area!

Hannah and I also had our first butcher and produce seller experience. The meat and produce around here are really fresh and inexpensive, so I have a feeling that a lot of our weekly meals will be fruit-and-veggie filled. We got some chicken breasts and some minced meat--don't say ground beef! And we got an entire bag of produce--potatoes, carrots, onion, pepper, peas, and broccoli--for only €6!

Today we went on the walking tour that was scheduled for orientation but got rained out. It probably would have been more interesting if it actually had taken place on out third day, though, because most of the sights we were shown are familiar to us now. But we gained a lot of factual information about the city from an experienced guide. Here are some pictures:

Main gate of Trinity College

The library at Trinity where the Book of Kells is kept--I'll be going there another day.

Wall of Fame in Temple Bar

The River Liffey--splits Dublin in two

The oldest house in Dublin--the inside, not the outside apparently. Why it was a ten minute stop, I don't know.

Christ Church Cathedral, and a horse

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle again--the only original bit left

Dublin Castle yet again

Inside City Hall

The symbol of Dublin--"Obedient Citizens, Happy City"

First Day of Class (Or, Why It's Good to Leave Earlier Than You Think You Need to)

My first day of classes was exciting! I'm definitely looking forward to the semester. I had Earth Science and Early Irish History. My Earth science professor is also the director of the program and has a PhD in Geology. His class promises lots of interesting information on not only what he calls the "sexy" part of earth science, aka volcanoes and earthquakes and anything Discovery Channel has made a documentary on, but also some of the lesser-learned topics like humans' manipulation of rivers. My Early Irish History professor is an Irish archaeologist with a PhD from UMass Amherst, and she actually wrote one of the books we're using for the class. Today we got an introduction on the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages of Ireland, and tomorrow she's taking our class to the National Museum of Ireland!

So the classes themselves were great, but getting there was another story. Today was the first time I had to get to the Academic Center entirely by myself, and I didn't do a very good job. This is the way to get to the Academic Center:

And this is the way that I went:

Once I called Ian and found out that really all I did was forget to go up one street, I knew exactly where I was. I'm sure I'll do better tomorrow.