One of the things that I was most nervous about was the hostel experience here in Europe. I feel like I have heard horror stories, and for so cheap how could they be a good experience.
Turns out I have stayed in two hostels, and they have both been pretty great experiences. The hostel we stayed in in Dublin, Jacob's Inn, was a whopping 15 Euro. We lived with 10 people and had our own bathroom and tons of space. They gave us a free breakfast of toast, cereal, porridge, tea, and coffee. But the amenities have not been the best part. In Dublin we stayed with 4 french students and two older spanish women. All were very nice and spoke very little English, which was kind of fun. I got to perfect my already WONDERFUL Spanish speaking skills (as most of you know this is 100% joke). We were also in the hostel with TONS of people that were in Dublin for the All-Ireland final for Gaelic football (they call it Irish football). The people from the farthest north part of Ireland, Donegal were very loud and very funny. Their chants and songs rang throughout the city all night. Even though we could not understand a word they were saying (like they were speaking a different language). They were clad in green and yellow for two days straight.
In cork the hostel set me back 16 euro. Stayed in a room with 6 people total. Only two of us were from our group. This room was no bigger than a college dorm room for two, but it was so fun. We were roomed with 4 girls from California that were studying in Dublin. They were so very cool, and we spent the end of the night (way to late may I add) hanging out in the hostel bar. We played snooker (close to pool), sang songs, and learned from the Irish. It was an absolute blast!
I do not want to jinx my hostel experience, but so far I have loved it and I have met some really really cool people. Everyone might have to say a prayer and hope that this blog post does not change my fortunes.
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Cork
Sorry it has been so long. For the first time since we have been here we have been hit with a significant work load. As much as I would love to only travel and blog, I was politely reminded that I am actually here for schooling :) I am sure I have lost a few followers because it has been so long...oh well!
This past weekend we made a trip to Cork. A city in the southwestern part of Ireland. It is the third largest city on the island, but FAR less crowded and touristy than Dublin. I loved the city. I went with three people that I met here rather than the normal crew from ISU. It was a nice change. The guy is from Milwaukee and goes to University of Minnesota, and the two girls are actually from DePauw. It was nice to hang out with some people from my old stomping grounds.
We arrived at 11 or so Saturday morning, and it was an ABSOLUTELY PERFECT day. 65 or so degrees and sunny. We could not get over how perfect the weather was.
Thats ryan from minnesota and I
The city was small enough that we could spend a long day walking and scale most of the city. Cork is in the hills though so it was quite the workout. I will post some pictures later, but we went to an old shut down prison, saw two beautiful cathedrals, walked through a beautiful little park. The city was just perfectly quaint. This is the view essentially outside of our hostel.
Like dublin the city is split right down the middle by a river; in this case it is the River Lee.
This past weekend we made a trip to Cork. A city in the southwestern part of Ireland. It is the third largest city on the island, but FAR less crowded and touristy than Dublin. I loved the city. I went with three people that I met here rather than the normal crew from ISU. It was a nice change. The guy is from Milwaukee and goes to University of Minnesota, and the two girls are actually from DePauw. It was nice to hang out with some people from my old stomping grounds.
We arrived at 11 or so Saturday morning, and it was an ABSOLUTELY PERFECT day. 65 or so degrees and sunny. We could not get over how perfect the weather was.
The city was small enough that we could spend a long day walking and scale most of the city. Cork is in the hills though so it was quite the workout. I will post some pictures later, but we went to an old shut down prison, saw two beautiful cathedrals, walked through a beautiful little park. The city was just perfectly quaint. This is the view essentially outside of our hostel.
Monday, 24 September 2012
Sorry for that short last post, but I thought it was very funny.
Now to my trip to Dublin. Its really hard to describe how great it was in typing, but I will try to do my best to give you a small picture.
We left here at 6:45 and got to Dublin at about 9 in the morning on Sat. We were going to grab a bus company that would pick us up and drop us off basically at our own convenience at the main tourist destinations around the city. We decided against that and just started to walk. Like the stereotypical tourists with our big backpacks and our old fashion map. (peoples iphone's internet does not work here except in wifi areas). The map was great though! We basically walked the span of O'Connell street on our first leg. It is the main drag that runs straight through the middle of the city and across the River Liffey. Across the river from our bus stop was the Spire. Not really quit sure what its there for to be honest, but still kind of a cool structure.
Then we thought about where we were going and basically figured out that we walked the exact opposite direction from Trinity College which was literally right across the street from our bus stop so we went back. Trinity College was BEATIFUL! THe greenest grass in the world and all stone buildings were very very cool.
We walked across the Greens to the library where the Book of Kells is held, but seeing it was a very long queue (line) and very expensive. I know bad excuse, but we took pictures of the sign instead.
We then took the short walk from the college to Grafton street which is the main high end shopping area of DUblin. Obviously I did not buy anything, but it was a very cool walk. I am becoming a huge fan of streets that cars do not drive on. It seems that all cities here have street that are forbidden to drive on except emergency vehicles. It really adds something and I think they are really cool.
We then walked across the city making small pitstops to site see, but if I wrote about the small stops I would be writing FOREVER. We went and had a snack and a few beers at the oldest pub in Ireland. Brazen Head (we for whatever reason pronounced it wrong and were quickly corrected) BRAY-zen...It was a littel pub and Inn and very very cool. We ate in the small courtyard in the heart of the pub.
Finally we made it to seemingly the most cherished piece of Irish culture. The GUINNESS factory. All joking aside the pride taken in this stout (beer) is truly remarkable. And the Irish people really do take pride in brewing the best guiness (it is now brewed in like 50 countries i think). The Guinness we drink in the states is not only not NEARLY as good as it is here, but it is not brewed here. With its popularity only a select few people actually drink the Guinness brewed behind St. James Gate. Authur Guinness is the founder and has his own holiday coming up this week Thursday I believe. ARTHUR's DAY. At the end of the tour I became officially licensed to poor guinness.
Fun fact for the day the harp is a traditional Irish trademark (it is on the back of multiple coins). It is also the trademark of Guinness. Guinness used the harp before the Irish government and the Harps actually face opposite directions.
After a very long day and a grand pub crawl on Saturday, Sunday was a struggle. We knew there were a few things we had to do before we left, but the backpacks felt a lot heavier. Also, Sunday was the day of the All Ireland Final for Irish football (close to the superbowl) the streets were full of green and gold for Donegal and green and red for Mayo. It was very cool!!! Except the Donegal is close to the farthest north part of Ireland (farther north than most of Northern Ireland, but still part of the Irish Republic). The people from the North have such a thick accent that you literally cannot understand a word they are saying. I was relieved to hear that even other Irish cannot understand them at all, but it was kind of funny. It was like they spoke a different language.
Sunday we did three major things walk ALOT AGAIN, see St. Patricks Cathedral, and the Jameson Distillery. St. Patricks was absolutely incredible. The amount of history in those walls was ABSOLUTELY incredible. The feeling in there was sort of indescribable and the beauty was definitely indescribable.
We walked to the Jameson Distillery, but we remembered how much walking it took to get through the 7 floors of the guinness factory and it was quite expensive. So we decided to see how much we could see for free and move on. And bought my best purchase in Ireland a Flat hat. That barrel in picture two is the barrel that held the first batch of Jameson.
And here is what this long two days did to us...
IN OUR HATS!
Now to my trip to Dublin. Its really hard to describe how great it was in typing, but I will try to do my best to give you a small picture.
We left here at 6:45 and got to Dublin at about 9 in the morning on Sat. We were going to grab a bus company that would pick us up and drop us off basically at our own convenience at the main tourist destinations around the city. We decided against that and just started to walk. Like the stereotypical tourists with our big backpacks and our old fashion map. (peoples iphone's internet does not work here except in wifi areas). The map was great though! We basically walked the span of O'Connell street on our first leg. It is the main drag that runs straight through the middle of the city and across the River Liffey. Across the river from our bus stop was the Spire. Not really quit sure what its there for to be honest, but still kind of a cool structure.
We then walked across the city making small pitstops to site see, but if I wrote about the small stops I would be writing FOREVER. We went and had a snack and a few beers at the oldest pub in Ireland. Brazen Head (we for whatever reason pronounced it wrong and were quickly corrected) BRAY-zen...It was a littel pub and Inn and very very cool. We ate in the small courtyard in the heart of the pub.
Finally we made it to seemingly the most cherished piece of Irish culture. The GUINNESS factory. All joking aside the pride taken in this stout (beer) is truly remarkable. And the Irish people really do take pride in brewing the best guiness (it is now brewed in like 50 countries i think). The Guinness we drink in the states is not only not NEARLY as good as it is here, but it is not brewed here. With its popularity only a select few people actually drink the Guinness brewed behind St. James Gate. Authur Guinness is the founder and has his own holiday coming up this week Thursday I believe. ARTHUR's DAY. At the end of the tour I became officially licensed to poor guinness.
Fun fact for the day the harp is a traditional Irish trademark (it is on the back of multiple coins). It is also the trademark of Guinness. Guinness used the harp before the Irish government and the Harps actually face opposite directions.
After a very long day and a grand pub crawl on Saturday, Sunday was a struggle. We knew there were a few things we had to do before we left, but the backpacks felt a lot heavier. Also, Sunday was the day of the All Ireland Final for Irish football (close to the superbowl) the streets were full of green and gold for Donegal and green and red for Mayo. It was very cool!!! Except the Donegal is close to the farthest north part of Ireland (farther north than most of Northern Ireland, but still part of the Irish Republic). The people from the North have such a thick accent that you literally cannot understand a word they are saying. I was relieved to hear that even other Irish cannot understand them at all, but it was kind of funny. It was like they spoke a different language.
Sunday we did three major things walk ALOT AGAIN, see St. Patricks Cathedral, and the Jameson Distillery. St. Patricks was absolutely incredible. The amount of history in those walls was ABSOLUTELY incredible. The feeling in there was sort of indescribable and the beauty was definitely indescribable.
We walked to the Jameson Distillery, but we remembered how much walking it took to get through the 7 floors of the guinness factory and it was quite expensive. So we decided to see how much we could see for free and move on. And bought my best purchase in Ireland a Flat hat. That barrel in picture two is the barrel that held the first batch of Jameson.
before I start my post about our trip to dublin I just wanted to let you know about an email I just received. Most if not all campuses in the states atleast have some sort of email notification about crime alerts. Suspicious people, gang activity, fights, etc. Well I just received an email from the garda (police) about a missing black nike duffle bag. VERY funny to me, maybe not to you. But it amy show the difference in culture.
Saturday, 15 September 2012
Today was a pretty incredible day. We went hiking down a path with no real expectations. Jordan and I wore sandles. And a mile or so down the path was an old castle ruins. Unfortunately graffiti everywhere but still very COOL. So we did some exploring and climbing (barefoot, i know mothers out there are saying horrible idea, but it was great)
There are some of the pictures from the climb, but it was cool to just find something without anyone telling us about it or anything. It was a beautiful view from the top, but it was hard to get a picture to capture it. So then we decided to keep walking (still in our flipflops). We came up to the next part of our adventure... A random bridge without a bottom, but we were in the climbing mood. It was not nearly as rusty as it looks in pictures.
VVery cool little day trip today.
Weve also done some scheduling for trips. We have official plans to amsterdam. gimmelwald, Switzerland (tiny town overlooking interlaken), dublin (obviously). and trips in the works to Galway (supposed to be the best city in Ireland), cliffs of Moher, cork, and other places in Ireland. As well as Scottland, London, and one more place hopefully.
Met some really cool people along the way including two twins from DePauw (my first college). Had a great time with them reliving my glory days haha. We went to a foam party (kind of gross, really cold, and an absolute blast).
I am just sort of writing off the top of my head, so if anyone has something they really want to hear about or questions feel free to make a comment (or email me zachary.walker1@gmail.com). obviously the big travel stuff is coming soon, and yes I still am enrolled in classes.
There are some of the pictures from the climb, but it was cool to just find something without anyone telling us about it or anything. It was a beautiful view from the top, but it was hard to get a picture to capture it. So then we decided to keep walking (still in our flipflops). We came up to the next part of our adventure... A random bridge without a bottom, but we were in the climbing mood. It was not nearly as rusty as it looks in pictures. VVery cool little day trip today. Weve also done some scheduling for trips. We have official plans to amsterdam. gimmelwald, Switzerland (tiny town overlooking interlaken), dublin (obviously). and trips in the works to Galway (supposed to be the best city in Ireland), cliffs of Moher, cork, and other places in Ireland. As well as Scottland, London, and one more place hopefully.
Met some really cool people along the way including two twins from DePauw (my first college). Had a great time with them reliving my glory days haha. We went to a foam party (kind of gross, really cold, and an absolute blast).
I am just sort of writing off the top of my head, so if anyone has something they really want to hear about or questions feel free to make a comment (or email me zachary.walker1@gmail.com). obviously the big travel stuff is coming soon, and yes I still am enrolled in classes.
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