Kilkenny

We felt like getting a little adventurous this weekend and journeyed out of the city to a town called Kilkenny.  It's about 2 hours south of Dublin; however with the weather we experienced it felt like we were way up North.  There was a group of seven of us: Sarah, Katelyn, Mollie, Brina, Rohan, Emily, and myself.  We left early Saturday morning and headed into down town to catch the Bus Eireann that would take us to Kilkenny.  A couple of hours later we arrived in the town and headed for our hostel.  This was my first hostel experience and I was a little nervous about the whole idea but luckily because we were in a big enough group we had our own room.  Kilkenny must have been the place to be that weekend because we ran into different groups of kids from UCD.  After we dropped our bags off, everyone of us was starving so we found a place to eat and get out of the cold.  We then decided to hit the town and go shopping!  After we shopped for a bit we toured an old house in town called the Rothe House.  It was built by a wealthy merchant of Kilkenny, John Rothe in the late 1500s.  Apparently he was a prominent man in the city and his house was furnished with many luxury goods.  There was also a rooftop garden which we obviously went to go see.

Courtyard outside the house

Sarah, Mollie, Brina, & Katelyn in front of the massive fireplace

Roof top garden with a little snow

From there we split up for a bit to do more shopping and walking around.  We ended up coming across a bridge looking over a little river...this is one of my favorite pictures so far, I just love the different colors of the buildings in the background with the fog!

At 3:30 we were ready to begin our tour of the Smithwick's Brewery, located right in Kilkenny-next door to our hostel actually.  Unfortunately we didn't know the majority of the tour was outside but our pint of Smithwick's waiting for us at the end kept us going.  Our tour guide had been working there for about 20 years and you could tell he was very passionate about this Brewery.  He told us all about John and Edward Smithwick, how they got this company started and it successes over the past 300 years!  An important part of the tour he showed us was the abbey they have on grounds.  It's clear that these were  faithful  men and took time every day to count their blessings for their great success. 

Here's the abbey built in the 1200s where the workers would say their daily "ale Marys"

We learned all about the maturing and tasting processes that goes on behind the scenes before the beer gets put on the shelf.  We even got to do a little tasting of our own at at the end.  It was so cold outside all anyone could think about was just getting back inside and enjoying a Smithwicks. 

It took him about 20 minutes to pour the perfect pint

And there it is....I'm not a fan of beer but this certainly went down smoother than a Guinness

After our tour we headed over to a pub called The Field for dinner and drinks.  Someone on the bus ride to Kilkenny recommended that we go there- the owner loves American sports and had the walls covered with pictures of American sports and teams including Babe Ruth (The Great BAMBINOOOO).  It was pretty empty when we got there but we had the upstairs to ourselves for dinner-we scarfed down our burgers and then headed downstairs for a good time.  To our surprise there was a Stag Party (An Irish bachelor party) going on and shortly after that there was a young band that played for a couple hours.  It was great to hear some live music and they had a great variety from the Beatles and Johnny Cash to Train.  Unlike being in Dublin, this pub was in walking distance to our hostel...no taxi fee for us tonight!

Sunday morning check out was at 10:00 AM so we hit the Kilkenny Castle before our bus ride home.  I was so excited to see my first castle in Ireland!  It's pretty cool that the first one I saw was the one Mom and Aunt Joey visited during their first Ireland excursion.  We couldn't take pictures of the inside unfortunately but I got plenty of pictures of the outside.  The tour was great and really interesting to listen to.  Our tour guide told us how Irish wakes used to be carried out...what they would do was take down the front door of the house and lay it on two chairs, and that is how the body would be viewed.  He then went on to mention that most people back in the day would meet their spouses at a wake.  How ironic that's exactly how my great-grandparents met!

After the castle we grabbed a quick lunch, got back on the bus, and headed back to Dublin...

Cheers!

Stay tuned-we've already got Cork, London, and Paris booked for the first couple weekends in February!

I've Arrived in Dublin

I know I'm a little late starting this blog but I arrived in Dublin last Wednesday (Jan. 12).  Luckily my flight was one of the last ones out of JFK Tuesday night.  It was delayed only about an hour which I was totally okay with because they were de-icing the wings.  We took off and thankfully I slept most of the flight.  We landed in Dublin a little after 9 in the morning on Wednesday and was picked up by API (the study abroad program I'm traveling with)  at the airport to take our group to UCD.  While packing the couple days before I told myself I definitely needed everything in all three of my bags...I was definitely regretting that decision while dragging all  my bags from the airport terminal to the bus by myself.  The API director told us on our way to the bus, "Usually we only advise the students to only bring the amount of bags you can carry, but I'm very impressed you girls have it under control".....right after she said that my duffel bag went flying off and I totally contradicted what she had just complimented us on...oh well I managed.  We arrived at UCD and signed in and dragged through a days worth of orientation stuff and then finally worked on settling into my Belgrove apartment!

Oh, there's a pond on campus here too, just like "the Mack" but a tad bigger

Sarah O'Brien from home and I both planned on going to UCD by coincidence and I'm so happy I have a piece of home with me...she is such a good time : )  So the next day we had to sit through more orientation talks...just like freshmen year all over again.  Anyways that morning I finally met up with Sarah and we got to spend the day together!  Later on that day there was a reception for the international students...we dropped by for a while mainly for the free food and wine!....and to meet new people of course.  Afterwards we went to the student pub on campus to check out the scene there and met a group of great people!

Our first Friday night in Dublin everyone was ready to go out down town.  Since Sarah had been here already for a few nights she lead us straight to a club called Krystal.  We were told that the cover for the club was usually 15 Euros and that this was where the people from "The Hills" of Dublin and Collin Farrell hang out...and we got in for FREE (the one word that is music to any college kid's ears).  Sorry Kelsey, I didn't see Collin but I looked : )  So yes, we were totally under dressed and the drinks were expensive, but the fun we had is all that counts!

On Sunday the weather was great- sunny with blue skies (a weather forecast Ireland isn't too familiar with) so Sarah, Katelyn, Emily and I took full advantage of it.  We took a little shopping trip down town and walked through  St. Stephen's Green.  Its a public park in Dublin's city center that is simply gorgeous!  It has a huge archway as it's entrance and there are several benches and a gazebo inside, perfect for people- watching.  It also has several fountains which adds to the beautiful scenery.  The park is located right near Grafton St. which is a prime shopping area in the city.

The entrance to St. Stephen's Green

 Isn't it gorgeous

Of course we took a picture in front of a fountain
(From left to right its Me, Emily, Sarah,& Katelyn)

Well I made it through my first week of classes...It doesn't feel like I'm really here for school yet.  It was so nice to get settled in and site see the week before classes started, but I guess it's time to get back to the grind.  Everything about school here is so different than back home; this shouldn't have been a shock to me,  I was aware of how big the school was when I decided to come.  I guess it really hit me when I walked into the largest lecture hall in Ireland for my first class ( YES, THE LARGEST ONE).  There were a couple of hundred kids in the lecture- it was NO Mendel 273.  Yes Mom I know, it's all part of the experience and I just need to go with it.  Of the six classes I'm taking, only two of them are in that huge hall; luckily the other four are in smaller rooms.  The classes or "modules" as they call it here I'm taking are: Contemporary Irish Society and Culture, Intro to Moral Philosophy, Human Nutrition, Traditional Irish Storytellers and Their Tales, an Irish history class, & Health Psychology.  I'll admit it, I know I always complain at home about the insane amount of work my science classes bring, but now that I'm only taking Nutrition, I know I'm going to miss all that science.  On a side note...no classes on Fridays for me!  That's a first...guess I'll have to do some traveling : )