"Knowing is independent of being. I did not know you existed before you bumbled in here and ruined my nap. Yet that doesn't mean you weren't real before you woke me."
- Solembum, Eragon
Over a week since my last post?
I've already been to Ireland and back?!
...oops.
I definitely meant to update before I left for the Land o' Leprachauns, but I guess I got busy. Then I meant to update yesterday about the trip, but I was way too exhausted. Even now, I'm way too tired to be posting, but I figured that I'd stop leaving people hanging. Be warned, though: this post might be a bit disorganized due to sleepiness.
Okay, I do have some other stuff to update with, but I'll just talk about the Ireland for now:
Robby and I left for Ireland Thursday immediately after class, which was more painful than usual -- it's annoying when you're excitedly anticipating something and time seems to move so sluggishly slow! We took the train to the metro station closest to the airport, then from there to the airport, and from there to Ireland. The plane ride went pretty smoothly, though we apparently picked the wrong side of the plane to sit on. As we drew closer to Ireland, we could see the glowing city Dublin below, lamposts shining like floating orbs of light in the dark sky. Unfortunately, the city was seen better from the opposite side of the plane; we realized this as we were looking at the window, trying to get a good view of the city, only to look out the other side's window to see the view we had desired. Actually, the scene was quite pretty -- you really couldn't see any of the land (except the lights below), but the moon was also out that night, and that mixed with the city was a sight to behold.
We got into Dublin and speed walked through the airport. We had actually gotten in a little early, so we were a little worried we wouldn't be able to find Hannah and Brad, who were picking us up, but luckily, as we walked out into the main airport area, there they were, waiting for us. It was a really nice greeting, as Hannah basically jumped into my arms (do not mistaken this for a romantic reunion...ha, ha!).
After that quick but nice "OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE HERE! HI!" greeting, we grabbed a taxi and headed out to Maynooth, where they are studying. They live on campus of NUI, in fairly new and really nice apartment complexes. It reminded me of the Dodds suite, only each person has their individual room, and there is a shared kitchen. Anyway, Brad, Hannah, Robby and I made it back to Maynooth safely, only to realize that Abbie was mysteriously not answering her phone! We'd suspected that she had fallen asleep (a typical Abba thing to do), so we continuously called her. We must have left her with twenty four missed calls. We also tried to go over to her place and wake her up by...Brad throwing a shoe at her window? Not a good idea, but there was no damage thankfully. Eventually, Abbie called us back and came over. We sat and talked for a while before going to bed. Talking like we were that night really made me miss Dodds; strange as this may sound, but at that point (and a few other points), it didn't feel like we were in Ireland at all, rather just back in the Dodds suite, kicking back and talking just like before. It was a very nostalgic, yet good feeling to be back with them like that.
The next day, we slept in after staying up a little late. This worked out alright, given that both Abbie and Hannah had class. After they got back from class, they showed us around Maynooth a little bit. They had to go grocery shopping, not only because we were there, but also because it's part of their meal plan -- they live on their own and have to prepare their own meals. The cheapest grocery store is about a fifteen minute walk from, which was kind of nice since we got a glance at the little city of Maynooth. It reminded me a lot of downtown Crystal Lake, only more...Irish, and a bit bigger. There were little shops everywhere, and buildings that looked like traditional Ireland buildings made of stone. Even in the distance, there were castle ruins! But more on those later. =) After grocery shopping, we returned and helped Hannah prepare dinner (yeah, it was that late already). We had purchased trout filets at the supermarket, so that was the night's dinner, and it truly tasted wonderful. Well cooked, Hannah Jones!
I think Robby and I were itching to get a piece of the night life in Ireland since we've obviously been enjoying Spain's nightly diversions, so we made plans to go out to a night club. We prepared ourselves in lovely attire, took photos, and then headed out. Okay, apparently in Ireland, night life is poppin' on weekdays, but on the weekends, they're supposed to be slow -- everyone goes home and stays in for some unexplained reason. So, with it being a Friday night, the club was sadly deserted. There were a handful of people there, but no one dancing or anything. We tried another bar that had a dance floor, but that one was emptier than the club. We ended up not staying out for very long and instead went back to the apartments and hung out. It was cool to see the club and bar and all, and getting dressed up was an added bonus, but I'd say night life in Ireland on the weekend is a bit disappointing. Still, I enjoyed myself.
We got a late start the next morning, too...we'd probably stayed up later than we'd thought. But anyway, after getting regrouped, we planned to take a day trip to Dalkey, a small pueblo about 45 minutes outside of Dublin. Before heading to Dalkey, Abbie and Hannah showed us more of Maynooth. They took us on a mini-tour of their campus, showing us the more modern side of it, and the older side, which looked more like typical Ireland (with uh, more stone buildings). They have a really pretty church on campus, not as big as a cathedral, but stunning nonetheless. Well constructed. It was really interesting to see the differences in architecture style between Spain and Ireland. We also passed by some castle ruins, which sadly we could not enter. It's incredible to see these castles still standing after hundreds and hundreds of years. These things have been under several sieges, and been unused for quite some time, yet they're still here, and still will be so long as people decide to continue preserving them. If you think about it, these things could probably outlast any skyscrapers made today.
After, we took a bus to Dublin, then a train out to Dalkey. The little town was right by the "Irish Sea" (a.k.a. the Atlantic Ocean), which was really neat. We explored a few different castles: one was the Dalkey Castle (closer to the center of the city), another which I can't remember the name had been rebuilt a little bit and was being used as a government building (I think), and the final one was closer to the water (again, I can't remember the name -- I've got to work on that). Seeing the water made us, especially Hannah, want to find a beach, or at least some place where we could get close to the water. In the distance of the castle closest to the water was this set of big, tall rocks that people could explore in and climb on. Now, we're responsible, reckless college students that, so naturally, we had to check it out. After finally finding these giant rocks (with the help of a friendly Irish stranger), we proceeded to hang around them for a couple hours, taking pictures and just exploring. Hannah was determined to see a seal (they're supposed to be around there), but unfortunately, we did not see one, though she claims to have seen a seal's tail, swimming away. At one point, we went towards the bottom of the rocks and closer to the water. With our luck, the tide came roaring in at that point, and a couple of us had a wet foot and pants, but in retrospect, it was probably one of the most humorous parts of the day. Actually, who would have thought that climbing around on rocks would be an appealing passtime?
We got back late from Dalkey, and so we had a late taco dinner. We ended up falling asleep to Pocahontas on YouTube. It's been a while since I've seen that, but definitely a Disney classic!
Sunday, our final day, was spent entirely in Dublin. We actually got up early for this expedition, and we were also joined by one of their friends from the Study Abroad program as well. So, we get into the city around 10:20, and a few people want to go to the mass at St. Patrick's. Logically, that's our first stop. Europe really knows how to construct churches properly, because every church I've seen is just stunning. This one was no different. It was significantly bigger than the one on their campus, though not as big as some of the ones in Spain, but as usual, wonderfully constructed. Under the rainy Ireland sky (though I guess it wasn't raining...but it was a tad bit cloudy), it had kind of a darker feel to it, but I think that added a unique element to it for some reason. After we split up with the people who wanted to attend the Sunday mass, Robby, Abbie and I went off to explore Dublin a little bit. First stop, we went to the Dublin Castle. This was deceiving at first, because we initially found a small little plaza-like area, and we weren't really sure if we were in the right place or not. But after a bit of exploring, we found what we were looking for...and yeah, it was pretty awesome. I love castles, and getting to see a nearly-complete Ireland Castle was great for me. We even got to see the courtyard, which also held a small statue dedicated to the 2006 Special Olympics!
After the castle, we took two more brief stops. One was to Trinity College, which holds some impressive architecture of its own. In fact, it's a tourist highlight. That makes me wonder what the students at the university think of that...personally, I wouldn't want my school to be filled with tourists constantly; I'd find it distracting and annoying. Still, being the tourists we were, we had to visit it, and yeah, it had some pretty cool stuff. We didn't get to go into the famous library (one of the biggest of any university) due to cost and length of the line, but we got to see other parts of the University, which was pretty neat. Definitely had the Ireland feel to it -- green grass, stone buildings, etc. After that, we passed by the Molly Malone statue (well know for her...chest area) and took a quick walk through one of the parks.
We met up with the mass people a little after 12 and hit up lunch at some sort of bagel place. This was definitely American style, but it was definitely delicious! God I definitely miss some American food! Okay, so I'm not going to get distracted by food...next, we went to another park and visited the Oscar Wilde statue. Make no mistake, that man was a genius, and he has some of the best quotes of any famous person. I kind of wish I could have met him; the guy 's just so witty! Well anyhoo, after hanging out with Oscar Wilde, we went over to the Jameson Distillery for a tour. They gave us a brief look at the history of Jameson whiskey, and an overview as to how whiskey is made, which was neat. It was very similar to many of the tours in La Rioja, in which they told us how wine was made and what not. At the end of the tour, we got to sample some. A handful of people were selected to be 'tasters', however, in which they got to sample three different kinds of whiskey as well as received their own mixed (or not mixed) drink of Jameson Whiskey. Melissa, the girl who had come with us that day, was one of those people, and she got to sample Jack Daniels, Scotch, and Jameson. Let's say after that, she was feelin' pretty good -- she essentially had three shots of whiskey within fifteen or twenty minutes.
We hit up dinner after that, at a small Crepes-like place, also panini's. After dinner, however, the real party began: we went pub crawling for a good four hours. Honestly, you really don't have to like drinking to enjoy something like this; it's more for the socializing, being with a good company of people and having some good conversations. Really, that's what we had here -- we were enjoying each other's company, and just sitting back at each bar/pub having a good time. That's not to say of course, that I didn't have anything to drink...they have some really good stuff there, I must say! There was this hard cider called Bulmers, and that stuff is delicious! It has either an apple or pear flavor, and both are quite good. Then I also tried the world-famous Guiness, which actually wasn't bad -- it tasted like beer and coffee mixed together, two things that I usually don't like (putting aside my recent addiction to cafe con leche), but this had a surprisingly decent taste. It was smooth, and didn't make me want to gag. I can't say it's something I'd drink often, but it's something I wouldn't mind. The other thing that was surprisingly addicting? The game (or sport) of Darts. Seriously, they had a tournament playing on the TV in one of the bars, and we couldn't stop watching it! For some reason, it was exciting, watching these guys throw these little arrows effortlessly into bulls-eyes (or other spots) and concentrating so hard.
That was, unfortunately, the end of our trip. Robby and I grabbed a bus back to the airport, and spent the night there until our 6:00 flight. We didn't want to spend money on a hostal, or on a cab from Maynooth to the Dublin airport, so we figured to be cost efficient, we'd crash in the airport. We got there a little before midnight, so it was only a...five hour wait. And we could check in in just three hours! So, not so bad, right? Well, I've never had to spend the night in an airport before, but I can honestly say that it's an experience I'd rather not repeat. I've never felt more like a hobo, trying to find these really crappy place to sleep or wait, trying to stay warm (that airport was friggin' cold!), trying to not go crazy...yeah. I could probably do it again if I absolutely had to, but that was not at all comfortable. And you can bet that I did not sleep well, if at all, the entire time there. Plane ride was not great, either -- I did manage to sleep for most of the flight, but my fall allergies have finally kicked in. So runny nose + airplane ride = Not so good, especially for ears. Yeah, I couldn't hear very well when I got off that plane...and throw some extreme sleepiness on top of that. Hence why I was messed up when I got back in Madrid in the morning, and am still a little messed up now.
I'd gladly do it again for that experience in Ireland. I had a really good time, even though it was way too short and I didn't get to see a lot of the country. I still got to see some really gorgeous things, and go through some culturally different experiences. The best part, however, was being with friends, having a good time, and getting to explore yet another foreign place. People talk about how they want to get out and "see the world," and it's weird yet exciting to think that I'm actually doing that. And I'm doing it with friends.
I'm very lucky, and very grateful.
Okay, on another note: it was weird as hell to go into a country that didn't speak Spanish. Like really, it felt so awkward at first. When I got into the Dublin airport (getting my visa checked), I was still speaking Spanish, saying everyday phrases like "Perdon (excuse me)" o "Lo siento" o "Buenos Dias/noches/tardes." It was almost...foreign, to hear people speaking English around me. At the same time, it was a bit refreshing to be able to take a break from speaking Spanish all the time.
Actually, though, throughout the trip, I was speaking Spanish some of the time without even realizing it. Just with once again, the everyday phrases that you use to communicate with the general public. So it felt natural. Want to know what I DID realize, though? Actually two things. One: my English is starting to get worse. I feel like I don't speak it as clearly as I used to, nor do I write it as well. Being somewhat of a perfectionist with English grammar and spelling, I've noticed just how many typos and mistakes I'm making when writing things in English -- it takes more time because I have to go back and fix the errors, which are caused sometimes because of the Spanish language (they phrase things differently). Two: I'm starting to naturally pick up the Spanish accent when I speak Spanish. So as embarassing as this may be, I now use the 'jota' (pronounced: hoe-tah, but it sounds like you're about to spit) and the lisp when pronouncing the letter 'c' as an 's'.
...then again, this is probably a good thing!
Alright, I will post pictures (as usual) later, but now it is bed time! I'm still trying to recover from Ireland!
Hasta pronto!
~ LSquared
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