Kerry Excursion

This past weekend was so eventful and fulled with sights, scenes, touring etc. I don't even know where to begin! We left on Thursday morning and began our 3 1/2 hour journey to the town of Killarney. Killarney is such a cute little town, it only has about 5,000 residents and is sort of like a smaller more quaint version of Galway. We stopped at a little pub to have lunch called Tatler Jacks and walked around town for a little while until we had to be back on the bus to go to Ross castle. The day was absolutely beautiful and when in the sun it was actually really warm! Our group had fun climbing up the sides of the castle walls and taking pictures. For a castle, it wasnt all that great as it was pretty destroyed and was hard to imagine what it would have actually looked like but was fun nonetheless. We then drove back to Killarney to check into our Hostel 'Neptunes.' Hostels always make me nervous as there are so many people that stay in them and may not always be the cleanest, however our room was very clean, and we even got passes that we had to show to a security guard to let us in which made me feel a lot more secure. After we settled in, we went to Penneys down the street! I told myself that I was not going to back into Penney's for a long time as every time I go in, I end up spending way too much... I went in and 50 euros later came out with a new pair of shoes, jeans, a tank top, sweatshirt, and earrings! oops. We then went back to the hostel and made dinner in the kitchen and then got ready to go out for the night. We went to this bar called the Grand with traditional Irish music. There were surprisingly a lot of Americans at the pub and as we started talking with this group of golfers, found out that they were all from Minnesota! I talked with one man who lived only a few miles from my house haha! They were in Ireland on a golf trip as they were the founders of the store Golf Galaxy. It is crazy how small this world is and when you get talking with people, you can make start to make the strangest of connections. (I also went to high school with another mans nephew!) Our group then went to the back of the bar where the night club was and danced the rest of the night!!
On Saturday morning, we woke up and drove to the Muckross castle. The castle is most noted for Queen Victoria visit to it in 1843. We toured the castle and then walked around on the grounds which were gorgeous! The castle overlooked the lake with mountains on the other side. I definetely wouldn't mind living there :) We drove another 2 hours to get to the Skellig experience which was a 20 minute documentary about a mountain. It was really not worth the 2 hour drive, but at least the scenery along the way was beautiful.We then drove back 2 hours and stopped at a waterfall along the way which was so cool! We were supposed to stay only 10 minutes, but when we got there, another tour group searching for an 83 year old man that had been missing over an hour. We joined in the search, and after 45 minutes found the man who had wandered off and was deep into the woods. It was quite the eventful day and felt so good to be back at the hostel.
On Saturday, we got up early again and drove to the Tra li museum which was not overly exciting but still cool to see the exhibits. We then drove around the Dingle peninsula and encountered the most scariest thing on the way there. While we were driving through the mountains, we reached a point where the road was down to one lane with the mountain on the right side and a cliff edge with no guard rail on the left. Our bus driver Jerry, was driving very cautiously when another car came whizzing around the corner. I had started taking a video of the scenery about 20 seconds prior to this happening, and all of a sudden, my video camera flew out of my hand and to the front of the bus. Jerry slammed on the brakes as the bus fish tailed with the back of the wheels at the edge of the cliff. The other car was wedged in between our bus and the mountain and the lady driving got out screaming at our bus to back up. We tried explaining to the irrational lady that if we backed up, our bus would go straight over the cliff. At this time, we all moved to the right side of the bus to offset the weight as a precaution because we could not get out since the door (which is on the left) opened up straight on to the cliff edge. After explaining to the lady that we could not do anything and that it was her fault for speeding around a curve on a one way road, she had to keep driving her car, scraping the whole left side and taking off her mirror. After about 20 minutes we were all safe and kept on driving. We arrived at our destination, the Blasket museum and after another 20 minute documentary, were on our way once again. On Saturday night, we went to a show at the Kerry folk theater. It was a traditional Irish dance performance which I enjoyed a lot! We got back to our hostel at 11pm and I was so tired I went straight to bed!
On Sunday, our only thing on the agenda was the Cliffs of Moher! I was so excited as I have wanted to see the Cliffs for a really long time! We drove to Dooley and had lunch, and then drove down to the ferry port to get on a boat so we could see the cliffs from the ocean. At first, the ride was so much fun as our whole group was on the back of the ferry. But as we started getting deeper into the ocean, the waves came all the way over our boat and got us soaked. I started to panic a little as the boat started to get very tipsy and would lean all the way over letting in hundreds of gallons of water into the boat. When we reached the end of the cliffs, I started feeling queezy of course and had to close my eyes for the rest of the way back to shore. Overall, it was a memorable experience that I will remember for ever. We then drove to the top of the cliffs and I took a ton of pictures as it was the most perfect day! It was so crazy to look over and see the ferrys go by in the ocean, and see how tiny they are compared to the cliffs. After the cliffs, we headed back to the Park Lodge which felt soo good to be back after such a crazy fun filled excursion. I will post pictures as soon as I can but right now my computer isnt working and im not sure how to post pictures with my Ipad.
On Wednesday morning, we leave again for a long excursion to Northern Ireland and I cant wait!
: ) H

Limerick

Wow! It has been quite the busy past couple of days! This is the first time I have even turned my computer on since last week! This past weekend we had our first over night excursion in Limerick! We left early Saturday morning accompanied by our theology professor Bro. Coleman. Bro. Coleman is probably by far one of my favorite proffesor here! He is always cracking jokes and is so smart- different than a lot of the monks I have met before. We first stopped at Kilmacduagh which is a medieval monastic site associated with Saint Coleman Macduagh. There is a cemetery there with over 30,000 bodies buried at the site since the 7th century! As we walked through looking at graves, Bro. Coleman was collecting bones! Since there have been so many people buried there, lots of bone fragments get turned up in the soil which is weird/creepy to think about! In the center of the grave yard, there was also a huge tower which was used by the monks to escape from viking attacks. The tower is only implanted 16in. into the ground, and is leaning 5 feet to the left so it is crazy to think that it is still standing after so many centuries! We then made our way to the Burren National Park which is the site of a 12th century hermitage spot. We had to walk quite a ways into the mountain but eventually made our way to the most peaceful spot ever! No wonder monks would go on hermitage! There was a little waterfall stream and trees covered with bright green moss that people will come to tie notes to the trees. We then went to the Paulnabrone Portal tomb which is a neolithic burial chamber that dates back to 3,800- 3,600 BC. Its hard to wrap your mind around looking at history that is still standing after thousands of years! From there, we had lunch at a cute little restaurant and then were off to another site! Our last stop of the day was to Templecronan which was an early christian site dating back to the 12th century. Surrounding the church, there were these things called slab shrines which were basically old tombs with the top exposed. In one of the tombs, we could see a whole femur bone! Its so nice to be able to  see such cool sites that normal tourists would never think to have gone to. Definitely one of the many perks of our wonderful program!
After a full day of seeing sites, we drove to our hostel for the night, the "Jamaica Inn." There was not much to do at the hostel as they had no internet or anything, so we went out to check out the pubs. Although this excursion was called "Limerick," we never actually were in Limerick as our hostel was in "Sevenmilebridge Town," and we were out in the country while seeing the sites. Sevenmilebridge was a very small town that consisted of  one street! We found a cute little old pub however in which the locals were hosting a surprise 40th birthday party for a friend. They encouraged us to stay and help them celebrate, so we all waited for the birthday girl to arrive. The Irish sure do know how to throw a party as it was one of the most fun nights we have had in Ireland thus far! We danced the whole night and the birthday girl bought us drinks!
After our crazy night, we woke up early again to go to Bro. Colemans monastery "Glenstal Abbey." We went to mass and it was Very different than any service I have ever been to! Half of the service was in Latin/Irish, and when it was time for communion, it was just one mad dash to be first. All of us from CSB/SJU just sat in our pews not knowing what to do! After mass, we had lunch with Brother Coleman and then toured the woods which the Abbey is situated on. After a couple hours, we were all ready to go home, but stopped in a small town to watch  Galway vs. Kilkenny in the hurling finals. This is the first time in seven years that Galway has made it to the finals, but unfortunately the match ended in a tie and we will have to wait another 2 weeks until a rematch is scheduled.
Arriving back at the Park Lodge on Sunday evening was the best feeling ever! We have all made Park Lodge our home and although we love going on excursions, we cant wait to get back to our pink floral bed sheets!

Bro. Coleman and the leaning tower

At Burren National Park Hermitage spot

Drinks at the pub!

These past few days have pretty much all been classes as we leave tomorrow for another excursion, this time to Kerry!!

And we Danced...

Last night, J.P opened up the pub in the hotel for the first time for our whole group. It was so much fun! It was pretty much just one huge dance party!!! Even our study abroad leaders joined in! Here are some pics.

Amanda, Kate, and Me Dancing away!

Cottage 5! Atlantica

Pat, Megan, and Me drinking Breezers 

Roaming around in Spiddal..

Technically, the location of our stay is in Spiddal, even though our program is called "Galway." Spiddal is about a 25 minute walk from the park lodge hotel and can either be a wonderful short little walk or the longest most miserable walk ever! For instance, on Monday night a group of us walked to Spiddal in the POURING rain! It felt like the walk that never ended! Last night however, we walked to Spiddal with our usual group; the boys from cottage 3 or "the pride lands" and us girls from cottage 5 which we call ourselves "Atlantica." It was such a nice walk, the sun was shining and it was the perfect night! When we got to Spiddal we went to this little Italian restaurant, however we didnt look at the prices before we went in and ended up getting up and leaving right when we looked at a menu! We then went to the pub "The Tobber" because they had a pizza special that night. The cute little old bartender said that the pizzas weren't any good, but if we went down the street to the pizza parlor, then we could bring our pizzas back and eat them at the pub if we ordered a drink. We went to the pizza parlor, ordered our pizza and then came back to the Tobber and ate our pizza over a pint :) Having actual real food tasted sooo good as we have made buttered noodles for the past week and a half. After dinner, we went to Supermac's which is Irelands version of McDonalds and got icecream and ate it while we walked back along the beach. Last night was probably one of my favorite nights here in Ireland thus far as it was so relaxed and we had a great time! Just thought I would share that with you all. This weekend we go to Limerick on an excursion and will have lots more to share! Miss everybody at home, but I am having a GREAT time!!!
Love, H

Pictures

Gorgeous day in Ireland!!

Standing right beside W.B Yeats tower and bridge

W.B Yeats

Today we had another day excursion to Coole park which is where the poet W.B Yeats spent more than 15 years of his life. It was so pretty and there were so many trees that jutted hundreds of feet into the sky! Our literature Professor came with us and showed us around the grounds and stopped a few times to read us a poem. Last semester, I took a British literature class which focused on many poets from this era. We studied Yeats so it was interesting to be standing literally in the same place that he wrote most of his poetry in. It was a pretty quick excursion but was so worth it as the park was tucked away in a secluded spot that if I hadn't been on this trip I would never have gotten to see.
We started classes on Monday and already have quite the load of work to do! For our study abroad adviser Kathys class we needed to interview an Irish man and compare and contrast their life to ours. Abby was my partner so we hit up the pub and lone behold found an old Irishman to interview! He was very friendly and happily answered all of our questions.
Going to go to the pub so I will upload some pictures later :)
H

Aran Islands

Today, we went on our first excursion as a group! We left at 9:30 to go the Aran Islands. It was a 40 minute bus ride to the ferry dock, and another 40 minute ferry ride to the island. The ferry ride was not too enjoyable, as I have learned from the many planes, and buses I have taken so far that I do not do well with motion sickness! However, I thankfully did not get sick on the ferry ride even though it was VERY bumpy and the waves from the ocean were splashing up onto the windows. When we got there it was very cold! I wore my waterproof shoes (best purchase ever) and of course my rain jacket and was really glad that I bought gloves and a hat at Penneys the other day as they were much needed! Our archaeology professor Jacqui came with us and acted as our tour guide for the day which was very helpful because she was so knowledgeable. We had two choices as means to explore the island, we could either take a bus or rent bikes. I chose to rent a bike which at first was a bad idea as we had to trek over some pretty steep hills, but as the terrain became gentler I was so glad that I took the bike as the views were incredible and we got so much fresh air! We visited one of the highest points where over 3,000 years ago was used to defend the island from attack. We even got our first view at Irelands beautiful cliffs and got to hang our head over the edge (SCARY)!!!! And being the little mother that I am, I was pretty much yelling at all the boys for being too daring too close to the edge... (J.D Quinby). We stopped at the little boutiques along the way which pretty much all selled Aran sweaters for ridiculous prices (150 Euros)!! I didnt buy one as they were all wool and was not about to be itchy for 150 euros. The ride back into town on our bicycle was a lot smoother with  a lot of inclines which made for a much more enjoyable ride! We boarded the ferry and were on our way again!

View from the top! Beautiful

Me and Abs

Amanda and I looking over the edge! AHHH