So Many Animals!!

Since April it has been warmer here in Dublin. This sudden change in the weather inspired me and my friends to venture out in Dublin. We decided to go to Phoenix park (which happens to be the largest enclosed park in Europe!) for a picnic. We decided that this monument would be a great place to eat, so we climbed the slanted steps to the top. From the top we could see people playing football all over the park while we ate our lunches.


After lunch, a few of us decided to go to the Dublin zoo. This was a lot of fun! We saw an adorable baby orangutan that I fell in love with! We also saw a baby elephant which was beyond cute! The zoo was really huge. It had a whole African safari where there were rhinos, hippos, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, and plenty of other animals! The chimp exhibit was really cool too, it was outside on an island in a pond that had little tree houses and fun things to swing on! I really loved the penguin park of the zoo and there was even a petting zoo in it which had ponies, bunnies, cows, dogs, cats and so many other animals that I never thought I'd see at a zoo!

My friend Ali and I spotted a gorgeous flowering tree by the Red Panda exhibit. I thought this tree would be the perfect tree to pose under if I was going to prom and even though neither of us were going to the prom, we decided to take a picture underneath anyway!

Later, when we were in the petting zoo we spotted this wishing chair! I was very excited about it, so I wasted no time getting to the wishing chair and making a wish! It was a lot of fun!! I especially liked the painted sheep on the background!

After the zoo, I had a few friends over for dinner at my apartment. We managed to cook chicken, stuffing and mashed potatoes. I was really impressed with our meal, especially considering I did a good portion of the cooking and it still came out edible!

The next day, my friends Colleen, Tara & I went to church in the city center. The church was gorgeous, but I have to admit, the service was not all that impressive. After church, we had heard about some event in Dublin involving horses, so obviously we were very interested! We took a walk down Henry St all the way to the Old Jameson Distillery when we saw hundreds of horses in a square! It turns out this was a horse selling/trading event that happens the first sunday of every month! I cannot even explain how much I loved it! There were horses of all shapes and sizes! I met one man who had a lovely red horse! He asked me if I liked his horse and I told him I loved it. He then told me I could have her and take her home to New York with me! We ended up talking to the man a while and he even let me hold onto his horses reigns. It turns out his horse was named Peggy. He had brought 5 horses to sell that day and had already sold 3 by 11am! Peggy, he told us, was his most expensive horse and would easily sell for 2500 euro, but I could have her for free! He told us all about the trading and selling. I really enjoyed talking to him and learning about horses and the farming suburbs of Dublin. I especially liked petting Peggy!

Lately it's been very busy here on the DCU campus as next week is the last week of school! I've been writing a lot of papers and studying my fair share. I am very excited for the last week of classes! I am even more excited for my 20th birthday which is occurring on the 26th!! Also, my friends Ali, Hillary and I are taking a trip to Barcelona and Alghero from April 28th-May5th as a bit of a break before studying for exams! I'm really excited to see Spain and Sardegna. I have never been to either place, so it should be loads of fun!

As always, I hope everyone is doing well! I'll be home in a little over a month!! See you soon!

The West of Ireland!

On the weekend of March 28th, our group of 40 American students set out to discover the west of Ireland! Our first stop was in the beautiful (but expensive!) Galway! In Galway we had some lunch (I had apple pie!) and shopped around for an hour or so. We didn't have much time in Galway because it was just a stop on our way to the gorgeous Aran Islands!

We took a very rocky ferry ride to the island of Inishmor, the largest of the 3 Aran Islands. We stayed at the only hotel on the Island right on the beach. We learned that the island consists of 800 people, 1 ambulance, 3 policemen that trade shifts, a doctor and a nurse (who live right next to each other) and a bank that is only open on Wednesdays! It was so secluded and beautiful. While on the island we saw the sight of the 7 churches. It is really just a site where 7 old cobblestone churches runes lay and there are many gaelic headstones. We also traveled to Dun Aengus, a prehistoric fort where a celtic tribe lived. Dun Aenus is a bit of a climb to get to, but once up there it is a 300 foot drop off of a cliff! It was so windy that I was afraid to even get close for fear of falling off, so I got on my hands and knees and crawled to the edge to look off! It was absolutely breathtaking and I could never describe it with justice. The fort built around this huge cliff is equally as magnificent, and I give the members of the ancient celtic tribes a lot of credit for building a fort so dangerously close to the 300 foot drop and living there! While on the Aran Islands we also had a lesson in Irish. The native people of Ireland do not refer to speaking their native language as speaking Gaelic, they refer to it as speaking Irish! I can now say my name and ask for a pint in Irish!

After we left the Aran Islands we came back to the mainland and took a long drive to the town of Westport in County Mayo. On the way to Westport we stopped for lunch at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara. We learned that this private girls boarding school run by Benedictine Nuns (which Madonna's daughter attended) was actually built by Mitchel Henry in 1866 for his wife for her birthday. His wife saw the area and fell in love with it when they were on their honeymoon in the area. Unfortunately, his wife died early, and Mr. Henry never stepped foot in the Abbey again. He built a memorial chapel on the grounds though and had his wife buried there, and he too, was eventually buried there. Then, in WWI, the Benedictine Nuns bought the estate because they were refugees from Belgium. Needless to say, I loved this amazing Abbey. My birthday is coming up, perhaps someone will build one for me!

After Kylemore Abbey, we went onward to Westport. Just outside of Westport we stopped at this memorial statue. It is a huge ship with starved bodies and bones all over it. It represents the ships that left Ireland during the Great Famine. These ships were often known as "Coffin Ships" because so many people died on the ships from starvation and disease before they ever reached their destination. We had studied these ships in class, however it was even more moving to see this memorial. It is in County Mayo because this was the county that was most affected by the Famine. To this day if you ask someone from Mayo where they are from, they will respond "County Mayo, God help me!"

After the sadness of the memorial, we made it into the actual small town of Westport. After dinner, my friends and I went into town to see the local pubs. We ended up in the Porterhouse just having a pint when a group of men started setting up instruments 2 feet behind me. It was a small pub, so we were pretty cramped and the band introduced themselves to us. They were extremely friendly and it turns out they're a rater popular folk band in Ireland called The Mulloy Brothers. They are a group of 3 brothers (they're 4th brother had just died last summer) who play old Irish songs. They were very impressed with my knowledge of traditional Irish songs (all of which I know from my dad singing them all the time!) and told me I look very Irish! Throughout the night they played all of the songs I requested and even let me sing with them! I sang Molly Malone and Wild Rover with them! At the end of the night they gave me a DVD of themselves playing in their hometown. I hope I run into them again someday, they were absolutely the best!

Altogether, I loved the west of Ireland, especially my new friends, The Mulloy Brothers!

I hope everyone at hope is doing well, I miss you all!

Next time I will tell you about my adventures at Phoenix Park and the Dublin Zoo!!

Matt in Dublin!

As I told you in my last entry Danielle and Rob were here from March 13th-18th and Matt was here from March 17th-24th. So I was lucky enough to have all of them here on St. Patricks Day for the big parade! My favorite float of the whole parade was one of St. Patrick riding a Harley. I immediately thought of my dad and knew he would love this float too! I wish he could have come to Ireland to visit me because I know he would have just loved everything just as much as I do. Anyways! The parade was so crowded and people were doing anything to see it, one man actually climbed on a street sign just to see! I swear people were absolutely crazy but it was just so much fun!
So we all enjoyed the parade and afterwards we headed to my favorite pub (which is now Matt and Robs favorite pub too!) for some lunch. Then I let Matt nap while Danielle and Rob did some shopping. Later we had dinner and did our share of drinking to celebrate!
After Danielle and Rob left, Matt and I went all over Dublin in the next 6 days. We went to the history museum and the art museum, the Guinness storehouse, went on a tour of the Wicklow mountains, visited St. Stevens Green, saw the Dublin Castle, and he even went shopping!
Matt especially enjoyed the day tour of the Wicklow mountains. We saw Guinness lake and the spot where the Beatles wrote the song "Yesterday." We also went to Glendalough, so I was able to show Matt around since I had already been there. After Glendalough, our next stop was in Ballykissangel for lunch and then we went to the site "where the rivers meet" in Avoca which is where Tomas Moore wrote the famous poem "The Meeting of the Waters." It was a gorgeous area with beautiful stone walls and trees waiting to blossom.

After seeing Guinness Lake where all of the water to make Guinness comes from, we went to the Guinness Storehouse and learned even more about the Irish liquid treasure. Once we reached the 7th floor of the Storehouse, we enjoyed the gorgeous view. It was much less crowded in the storehouse when I went with Matt than with Danielle and Rob. So we were able to get seats and look upon Dublin while Matt drank both our of glasses of Guinness.
We also enjoyed Easter together while Matt was here. A bunch of my friends got together and we all made easter dinner, so Matt was able to meet my friends. Best of all, my mom sent me an easter basket!!

I hope everyone had a great easter and I will write about my trip to the west of Ireland and the Aran Islands next time!!

Danielle and Rob in Ireland!

On March 13th Danielle and Rob arrived in Dublin to visit me! I met them at the from doors of DCU and led them to my apartment where I showed off my bedroom and kitchen. After having some coffee and tea, I brought them to the City Center where we ate a bit of breakfast before I sent them on a small day tour of Malahide Castle and the coastline! By the time they were done with the tour, I was just finishing class and met them downtown for lunch! I took them to Molloys where they discovered the wonders of goujons! Goujons are delicious chicken! Afterwards we came back to DCU and they met my roommates and we had dinner. Everyone was pretty exhausted so we went to bed early! The next day I had class again, so they went on their way to the Dublin Castle and the Jameson Distillery. I met them downtown after my class and we had some dinner and walked around the city to get to an event called The Irish House Party. At the event, which was in a downstairs bar, we were given a 2 foot tray of finger food! The point of the Irish House Party is to give people a real taste of Ireland. We learned Irish songs and a great Irish band was our host. We learned that there are only 3 instruments that originated in Ireland: the harp, the bodhran (a handheld drum), and the Uilleann pipes which are like bag pipes but played with your elbow. It was very fun to see the uilleann pipes being played for us! altogether I think it was a great night and we all had a lot of fun! Over the next few days we went shopping and took a day trip to Newgrange! We also went to the Guinness storehouse and Dublina, which is an interactive museum that shows Dublins history way back to the time of the vikings! The Guinness factory was a lot of fun! there were 7 floors and almost every floor was giving samples of Guinness. Danielle and I are not big fans of the taste, so it was just Rob drinking the samples! However, we did all try the first sample together! We saw a lot of funny signs and even the first Guinness advertisement which boasts how it is healthy! At the end of, when we all got to the top floor we all got a free pint of guinness and the bartender drew a shamrock in the top of my foam with the guinness! I thought it was really cool and nobody else got one but me! The Gravity Bar on the top floor is a complete circle with all glass walls so that you can see the whole city! The view from up so high was absolutely magnificent! I definitely had a great time at the storehouse with Danielle and Rob. Monday was St Patrick's Day which was when Matt arrived so I went to the airport to get Matt while Danielle and Rob went to the City Center to scope out a good spot to stand for the parade!By the Time Matt and I got to O'Connell St everything was insane! People were climbing light posts and statues and anything just to get a good view! I will definitely include pictures it in my next post! We had a nice night on St. Pattys day and the next morning Matt slept in while Danielle, Rob & I went shopping one last time! Danielle got a really nice green coat because she liked mine so much! Sadly by 11o'clock we said goodbye at the bus stop in the city center because we could not find a bus that i could get on with them! Needless to say though, I had a lot of fun with them here and hope that they liked my new home just as much as I do!!

If anyone else would like to come visit, please do!! I promise you'll love it!

More of Northern Ireland!

I should have updated long ago, but I have been super busy with Danielle and Rob visiting me March 13th-18th and Matt visiting me March 17th until this morning actually. I just dropped him off at the airport! Anyways, I promise to write more about their visits, but I never finished telling you all about Northern Ireland! So, we went to the Ulster-American Folk Park, which is kind of like a Genesee Country Museum, except it shows how Irish lived in Ireland, how they traveled to America and how they lived in America. It was very interesting. They showed us a couple houses that families would have lived in with straw roofs and all. Then they showed us what the inside of the ship would have looked like that people would have taken to America. Each bunk would have to be shared by 5 people... imagine! We also saw the house of Joseph Hughes, the first Catholic Archbishop of New York, born in 1797! This is the Archbishop who ordered the construction of St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC! Less importantly, while I was there I got to feed chickens which I was pretty excited about! Next we went to the Giants Causeway! Legend has it that an Irish giant, Fionn, built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight a Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. When Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn.




While visiting the Causeway I saw the most gorgeous rainbow which made the visit even more spectacular!
After visiting the Causeway we traveled a little further along the coast until we reached our next destination. We walked for about ten minutes along the coast looking at an island in the water that we were about to go on after crossing a rope bridge! The rope bridge was quite scary if you ask me! it was really windy while crossing it, but I made it! and the island itself was very windy. The view, however, was absolutely magnificent. I fell in love with the various shades of green on the island, and even more so with the shades of blue in the water and the sky. I tried to get a nice picture of myself on the island, but the wind kept blowing me over! This is the best I got! Thats all about Northern Ireland! Next post will be about my visitors and our adventures! Hope everyone is doing well!

Cheers!

Oh Goodness! Northern Ireland!

Thursday, March 6th at 9am a coach bus set off with all 37 of us American students, along with Don & Brian, our program directors and Robby our amazing bus driver! We had a crazy time!

First we made our way to Belfast, where murals are all over the place. Both Catholics and Protestants have murals on sides of buildings and walls. The odd thing was that most of the Catholic murals were very peaceful, whereas the Protestant murals were scarier and much more threatening. On the side of the Sinn Fein building there is a mural of Bobby Sands, the first Hunger Striker in the H blocks. He died after 66 days at the age of 27. After he died 9 others followed him in striking and dying.The building next to the Sinn Fein office had a mural commemorating all of the hunger strikers who died in the H-blocks. They were on the hunger strike because they wanted to be treated like the political prisoners that they were, rather than common criminals. This mural, like the other catholic ones are very peaceful, whereas in a Protestant area of Belfast, I found this mural portraying a man in a mask holding a machine gun... not exactly peaceful or welcoming if you ask me! There were many murals just like this one all over the protestant side of Belfast! After seeing the scary murals, I was sort of looking forward to moving on up north to Derry.

We stayed in Derry for 3 nights in the Tower Hotel. Our hotel was just next to the peace wall, which we were warned not to cross. The religious fighting is still fierce in Derry and it is not a secret. Our first night in Derry I found myself in a small, crowded Nationalist pub that had a great live band and a strong spirit of desire for a united Ireland. I saw many signs that said "26 + 6 = 1" indicating that they felt the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland and the 6 counties of Northern Ireland should come together as one nation.
The next day we learned about the heartbreaking Bloody Sunday, which took place literally less than 5 minutes walking distance from our hotel. We walked down the same street that the peaceful protesters walked, and found ourselves at the Museum of Free Derry. The museum is in a building that stood on Bloody Sunday and still has huge bullet holes in the side of the building from when the British soldiers attacked this peaceful march. Inside the museum I saw horrific images and artifacts. They had a gun on display that the soldiers used to shoot rubber and plastic bullets that were not supposed to "kill" anyone, just injure them badly. These bullets ended up being deadly.
One of the museum directors was very closely linked to the museum, as he participated in the march and his brother, Michael Kelly, was shot and killed at the young age of 17 on Bloody Sunday. On display they had many articles of clothing that people were wearing when they were killed on Bloody Sunday. There was also a baby jumper on display that was used to try to stop Michael Kelly's bleeding.
This museum could easily bring a tear to any persons eye. When asked how he feels, Michael Kelly's brother stated "I just want this to be over. I just want peace."
I will never be able to explain this museum, or the events of Bloody Sunday with any justice, so if you care to learn more, please visit the museums website: http://www.museumoffreederry.org/.

After the Museum of Free Derry, our group did many other things including visiting the Giants Causeway and crossing a rope bridge to get to a small island! I promise to write more about them in my next post, but its getting late here, and my sister and Rob are coming to visit tomorrow, so I should get some sleep!

Before I go though, I have come to the conclusion that I take way too many pictures and I cannot fit them all on here, so if you would like to see all of my pictures from Northern Ireland, please check them out at http://stephanieindublin.shutterfly.com/

I hope you like them & I hope everyone is well!

Goodnight!

Adventure to Newgrange!

Yesterday some of my friends and I went on an adventure to Newgrange! Newgrange is the oldest free standing man-made structure in all of Europe and one of the oldest free standing man-made structures in the world!! It was built in 3200BC, making it more than 600 years older than the Giza Pyramids in Egypt, and 1000 years more ancient than Stonehenge! Newgrange is known as a "passage-grave" or a "passage-tomb."
The people who built Newgrange were not the typical "cavemen" that you think of. They were the first farmers of Ireland, which back then was covered in forest. Because of all the trees and forests, it is likely that the people only cleared small patches of land to farm. They built Newgrange, along with 36 other passage-tombs as part of their religion. The three largest tombs are Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, Newgrange being the largest of all. It is estimated that it took between 5-50 years to complete Newgrange, proving that the people of this time period were very dedicated because their life expectancy was only 25-30 years. That means many worked most of their life working on Newgrange, knowing they may not be alive to see the final product. The civilization was also much more advanced than most would expect, they had artists, astronomers, and architects! Evolutionists can shed no light on how this structure was erected because, according to their unrealistic view, people of that time labored under primitive and backward conditions. But it's impossible for such an enormous monument to have been built by anyone lacking a sophisticated knowledge of engineering and construction.

One of the most fascinating features of Newgrange is the Roof-Box right above the entrance to the tomb. During the 6 shortest days of the year (the winter solstice) the sun would shine directly into the tomb in the very early morning, marking a new year for the farmers. This is also when the Sun God would come into the tomb and take away all the spirits of the dead that had been placed inside the tomb throughout the year. The sun-box is far too advanced to be a coincidence, proving that the people back then were very intelligent! You can see, therefore, that the builders of this giant structure not only had a knowledge of engineering, but also possessed a knowledge of astronomy that let them calculate the length of days and the movements of the Sun.

Another amazing feature of Newgrange is the entrance stone that is directly in front of the pathway to enter the tomb. It is one of the most photographed stones in the world! This stone has ancient carvings that no one knows the exact meaning of.
This stone is engraved with the popular "Triple Spiral" which some believe represents life, death, and rebirth. This would make sense to be in front of a tomb. Others believe it is simply a map of the land and the spirals represent Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. This would also make sense. No one really knows, either way, this is where the symbol originated 5000 years ago!

Looking at the back of Newgrange, one might think it is simply a dirt mound surrounded by stones.


The stones used to construct Newgrange cannot be found anywhere in the area! It is made of 3 stones: glossy white ones & perfectly circular ones make up the main wall, while huge dark slabs of stone surround the base. The closest area that naturally contains the white stones is the Wicklow Mountains, which are about 50 miles away from Newgrange. The round stones were brought from 75 miles from Dundalk Bay. The large slabs of stones, which could weigh up to ten tons, were brought from 40 miles away. It would have been very improbable and dangerous to try to transport these stones by land, considering Ireland was covered in forests that had wolves, bears and wild boars living in them!
It is believed that they used the Boyne river to transport the stones and then carried them to the sight. They may have log rolled the huge slabs, because this was before the wheel was invented!

The 93 slabs of rock surrounding the base of Newgrange are beautiful, many of them with decorative engravings. I was absolutely taken away with the beauty of the 5000 year old art.


The view from the front of Newgrange shows beautiful hills and green land. All of this once was inhabited by the people who built this amazing tomb!


Of course, it was a lot of learning, but it was also a lot of fun, which we did not forget! Colleen, our wonderful friend/photographer in training took a picture of Allie, Hannah, me, Tara and Colleens French friend, Emaline playing in front of Newgrange!


As I mentioned before, Newgrange is one of 37 tombs. The smaller surrounding tombs are known as satellite tombs.
They can be found in the middle of farms just about anywhere in the area! This is just one of them!

To get to the site of Newgrange, we had to cross over this beautiful river, which had sheep on the other side. This really excited me because I have come to absolutely LOVE sheep since I have come to Ireland.

Little did I know that right behind Newgrange was a sheep farm!! I was quite excited!


When we had all finished the tour of Newgrange, we took a bus back to the town of Draghada and went to a pub and to a couple shops because we had some time before the next train to Dublin would be in. However, we still had plenty of time to kill when we got to the train station! We were definitely all tired from a long day! However, with six girls it is hard not to have fun, so we definitely made the best of our train station wait!


When the train finally arrived, we were given first class seats on the train because that is the only place my chair would fit! All six of us could not get over the plush seats that moved back and forth! We ended up singing songs together on the train ride back to Dublin. By the time we were back in Dublin it was just about 8:30pm and we were dying of hunger! We stopped at a small pizza shop where I met an old man and spoke Italian with him! Apparently I was quite charming because he ended up paying for my dinner! He was definitely a very fun old man and I never thought I would get to use my Italian skills here in Ireland!!

After dinner at the pizza shop, we took a bus back to DCU and some of us went back to my room to use the new coffee mugs I bought for really cheap in Draghada! I was so excited when I opened the package and found that the 4 mugs I bought for 5euro had fun different colored insides!
So Allie, Tara and I enjoyed a nice cup of tea in my new fun mugs as a soothing end to a long, exciting, day!

Who new education could be so much fun!?

I hope you all are having as much fun at home as I am having here! And, as always, I hope you are all doing well!