Just got back from Ireland! Craziness that it is actually over... ! Loved every minute of it, and dare I say that it has been my favorite trip so far?
But FIRST! I must tell you about my past week at school.... finals week!
I took 3 finals last week... in the most dysfunctional way. I didn't study a single thing for any of them. I was that girl. The 7th of June I had a German final. I had to talk to my teacher about my year in Belgium and all the things I have done and people I have met... in German! So... my German friend (and Google Translate) helped me out a lot and I wrote out a 2 pager on my year in German! It was epic and I was so proud. I showed up to the final and I just sat down and started reading my little paper I wrote. I kept laughing every time I looked up because my teacher had no idea what I was talking about. A mixture of bad translation, my horrible accent, and the fact that I kept laughing at myself because it is just ridiculous when I speak German. So, to say the least my teacher had no idea what I was saying. He was really nice and gave me a 12/20 (which is passing in Belgium and actually a good grade) because I had been "well-prepared" but I really need to work on my accent. So! I got a 11/20 on the German writing exam and 12/20 on the oral exam... so 23/40 is a passing grade! I can proudly say I passed a German class in French. Bam! Then after this I went over to my English classroom and asked if it was okay if I could take my English final then. Now, before you go and give me crap for taking an English final let me just remind you that I have been taking every exam this teacher gives - but in French. I take the tests
the opposite of my classmates. Which has worked out perfectly. The teacher doesn't make me do it at all! In fact, all year I have been asking for her to give me the same tests. I even write essays in French. So, I took my exam in French as well. I had to randomly pick 4 questions and do a little pre-writing over at least 3 of them and then after I was grilled with questions over the topic by 4 random classmates of mine. It was really intimidating! I think I even broke a sweat! They were all really impressed though. I answered ever single question and gave my opinion on some things. When I was finished my classmates were like, "Wow, you really didn't have any issues with any of our questions!" It felt good for them to say that. Then the teacher went on to tell me how proud she was of me and that I'm the only exchange student she has ever met who put as much effort in to succeed. She handed me back my exams that I had taken over the year and again applauded my progress and told me, "I was a pleasure to have in her class." Yay for moments like these :) All this week people have been coming up to me telling me that she has been talking about me in their classes. About how I'm the most improved and most integrated of all the exchange students :) It makes me happy that at least someone sees my progress. I'll never forget her :)The 8th, I took my French exam. Which is c
onfusing since my English exam could be considered a French exam too... but this one was actually with the French teacher Haha. I had to read this text in French that I had never read before and analyze it within 30 minutes. It was kind of a hard text. It was the same writing level as some of the texts I had read in my English classes in America. So... it wasn't like an easy level text but not overly hard. I understood it pretty well. After I finished reading it, I had to give a summary of the text to my teacher and then she asked me questions about it (like the theme, the characters, the symbols). I think she was really impressed that I understood it perfectly. She was really nice and told me that I had passed with flying colors and had really come along since the first days in her class. It made me happy :) I had kind of been scared of this teacher all year and for her to say I spoke well -- it felt good. After the exam, we just talked about my yea
r and my plans for the future. I'm really proud of myself that I did my exams... such a confidence boost!! :) My paper I wrote for the journal (in French, about my year in Belgium) also got published this week at school. Everyone wrote something in their second language so this journal was full of Italian, English, Greek, Latin, German, Spanish, Dutch, and one French writing (by me). Mine was probably the most personal text in the journal and I had two pictures that people had made of me next to my writing. It was so cool to see my writing in print! I was really proud. Random people have been stopping me to tell me how great it was and inspirational. One boy even told me that I inspired him to take a year off and do what I'm doing... :)Then the night of the 8th - Marge, Mollie, and I met in Liege to take the last train to Charleroi where then we took a bus to the Charleroi airport. Charleroi is probably the 'ghetoo-ist" and most trashy city possibly in Belgium. It is n
ear France and also the place where the cheapest flights are headquartered at. We got a really cheap flight to Dublin from Charleroi at a really early time.. which means nobody was able to drive us to the airport at 4 in the morning for our flight so we had to take the last train and spend the night in the airport. Woo! Such an experience. To be honest though... I would rather spend 6 hours in an airport than 20 hours on a bus any day of the week. We didn't get any sleep... but instead met a nice 6-month pregnant lady from Tennessee doing a Euro-Trip who started talking to us at 2 in the morning. It was funny. We boarded the plane the next day at 7:10 and made it to Ireland a half hour earlier than expected! It was a lovely little welcome. Everything was so smooth from this point on... found our bags, got a bus to Dublin City, found our hostel without problems. It was very stress free. Our hostel was so cute! And nice! I'm pretty sure the beds and rooms in general were nicer than our hotel in Spain! It was also great because we had a communal kitchen and didn't have to waste money going out to eat all week and instead bought groceries ;) It was just a great place to stay right in the center of Dublin, cheaply, and wi
th other young kids traveling like us. We were obviously exhausted when we arrived to our Hostel but we couldn't go to our rooms until 2 or 3 - so we went wandering around and grocery shopping for lunch (only 5 euros per person!). We ate lunch in the hostel's kitchen and played some board games while looking at things to do during the week. We went on a 3 hour Free Walking Tour of Dublin around 1:30 - as if we weren't tired enough! Our tour guide was this young student -a born and raised Dubliner. He was hilarious and knew so much about Dublin, especially historically (so, I was in heaven). I learned a lot from his tour! I had learned a lot about the history of Ireland in my history classes but I had forgotten about the Independence issues that Ireland's past has had. I think would really enjoy a whole course just on this subject! It was a great day... besides it pouring down rain!! That added to the mood of the 3 of us... wet and tired. Super.
Ireland is not like going to Spain... it was a high of 60 degrees (15 degrees Celsius) all week and when I was packing my bags to I literally had to go into my winter suitcase for some sweatshirts and pants. So not like Spain Ha! After the tour, we ran back to the hostel in a hurricane it seemed and went straight to our beds... and slept for 12 hours straight! No dinner - just slept from 5 to 5 in the morning. It was glorious. I can proudly say my first night in Dublin was spent sleeping!The 10th (Friday), we woke up at 5 in the morning (but we thought it was 6 in the morning since Ireland is an hour earlier than Western Europe... so we had time for breakfast and such when we realized we had an extra hour) and wen
t on our first day tour to the West Coast of Ireland. We booked a day tour to the Cliffs of Moher and West Coast of Ireland with this local and family run company. It was so much fun :) We took a transfer bus (like a greyhound bus) with about 15 other people across the center of Ireland to the wild and rugged coast line of the West - about 3 hours from Dublin City. We went though the pretty fishing village of Kinarva and saw the Medieveal Banqueting Castle of Dunguaire and then out to the village of Oughtmama in the heart of the Burren. Now what is the "Burren"? When the Irish say the word "burren" it sounds like "barn" but what the Irish mean when they say this is to describe the landscape around them. The Burren (in Celtic: Boireann, meaning
"great rock") is a landscape region in northwest County Clare and is a nominated UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the largest karst landscapes in Europe. The region measures approximately 250 square kilometers and is enclosed roughly within the circle made by the villages. The rolling hills of the Burren are composed of limestone pavements with crisscrossing cracks known as "grikes", leaving isolated rocks called "clints". The region supports arctic, Mediterranean and alpine plants side-by-side, due to the unusual environment. The Burren is renowned for its remarkable assemblage of plants and animals. The region supports many rare Irish species, so
me of which are only found in this area. The Burren is rich with historical and archaeological sites as well. During the counter-guerilla operations in the Burren in 1651-52, Edmund Ludlow (an English parliamentarian) stated, "(the Burren) is a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him... and yet their cattle are very fat". The hills, when you look at them, look to be very dry and rugged but they are not at all dry and are some of the wettest places in the Ireland. We arrived at the tour company's 200 year old family farm situated in a valley right in the middle of the Burren mountains and we
fed baby sheep! It was so cute and they were very hungry! Then we took a gentle walking tour with John (very cute, nice local guide) to the Burren Mountains. It was soooooo cool. When you look at these mountains from the valley you don't see any green or wildlife but then when we started climbing we saw so many wonderful plants and flowers and a beautiful view of the valley with the Atlantic Ocean in the distance. It was beautiful. We even took a group spiritual moment with a 5 minute lay down on the mountain side... John said, "Now you know what it is like to be a cow in the Burren". It was cute :) After the gentle hike we enjoyed "mum's" delicious ho
memade apple pie in Grannie's house! From the farm house we then boarded the bus and headed to Poulnabrone Dolmen - a megalithic burial tomb dating to 2500 BC. This is a portal tomb that consists of a twelve-foot, thin, slab-like, tabular capstone supported by two slender portal stones - that creates a chamber in a 30 ft low cairn. It was discovered in 1985 as a place where personal items were buried with the dead. Then we went on through Lisdoonvarna to the awesome Cliffs of Moher, rising a sheer 210 meters from the ocean below. The cliffs stretch 8 km and are Ireland's number 1 tourist attraction. The cliffs consist mainly of beds of Namurian shale and sandstone, with the oldest rocks being found at the bottom of the cliffs. It is possible to see 300 million year-old river channels cutting trough. As of July 2009, the Clif
fs were named one of 28 global finalists in the "New Seven Wonders of Nature". To say the least... these cliffs are epic. I was in awe the whole time and my mouth was in this constant "O" shape. There was a castle built on the top of the cliffs - called O'Brien's Tower. It went perfectly with the scenery and is at the approximate midpoint of the cliffs - perfect for picture taking! It was built by Sir Cornelius O'Brien, a descendant of Ireland's High King Brian Boru, in order to impre
ss female visitors (he got me impressed!). From atop the watchtower, visitors (we didn't go up it) can view the Aran Islands and Galway Bay, the Maum Turk Mountains and the Twelve Pins in the north in Connemara, and Loop Head to the south. Afterwards, we made our way down to Doolin Village for a lunch stop. Doolin is the home of traditional Irish music - and unfortunately we didn't get to experience any live music. The roads then winded us back down to black head where we followed the coast road to Galway city around 5. Galway is the west of Ireland's cultural capital. Galway is a bohemian and happy city with a very young population. Home t
o the Claddagh Ring and 14 families, there is amazing history in this city! Galway is also the last city that Christopher Columbus visited before making his way over to the West Indies - he came to Galway in search of the best crew who knew the Atlantic, and the western Iris
h men were the best around. We enjoyed a nice stroll through the streets and did a little shopping. We were supposed to catch a transfer bus back to Dublin but we missed it so we had to pay 8 more euros to go with another bus an hour later. It sucked... and we didn't get back to Dublin until like 11 at night. The past 3 days I had been feeling really sick and all day Friday I had felt horrible. My stomach hurt so bad and I got very well acquainted with the public bathrooms of Ireland, especially at the Cliffs of Moher... so at 11 at night I was crying and in so much pain. Everyone thought I had E.Coli since I had all the symptoms (except vomiting and a fever). At midnight, I went to the emergency room at the Dublin hospital.... on a Friday night. We had to wait an hour or so and saw way too many victims of drunken pub fights. It was kind of scary. When they called me in I was literally like... "My tummy really hurts" w
hich was just weak compared to the bleeding drunk man before me. The lady was really nice though and told me I just had an intense gastro problem instead of E.Coli - which made me feel better. She gave me some pain killers and then told me my doctor's appointment was in 4 hours. I was like... "Um, do I have to go?" I was thinking about how the girls were falling asleep in the waiting room and how we had another day tour at 7 in the morning tomorrow... so I told her I would come back tomorrow is the pain killers didn't work. I'm sure I looked really sketch... just leaving after I got my pain killers and hospital bracelet haha But they worked! I felt a lot better the next day. Just another experience (and another reason I'm all for the medical system in Europe - I didn't pay a dime). We were back at the hostel by 2 in the morning - safe and sound!The 11th (Saturday), we went on another one day tour to Connemara - the very western and wild side of Ireland. It is one of only two places in Ireland where sheep have the right of way over cars on the road! We left Dublin at 7 AM and headed west towards Oughterard - the gateway to Connemara - with our charming and very cute tour guide: Conrad. The term Connemara is frequently used (although incorrectly) to describe all of County Galway west of Lough Corrib. "Connemara" derives from the tribal name Conmacne Mara - another theory is that the term Connemara actually means "Inlet of the sea", the reason for which will easily be explained via a drive along it's rugged coast line. On our 3 hour drive, we passed through quaint villages with views unmatched anywhere else in Ireland. Not far into our journey, we stopped at the fa
mous bridge that was used in the "Quiet Man" film with John Wayne. As Conrad told us ... this film was the reason for all the stereotypical things that surround Ireland to this day. I guess whole classes at Universities are dedicated to how this film affected the thoughts of the United States about what it means to be Irish. The film was an awful representation! We then stopped at Maam Cross where we saw for the first time some of the numerous lakes that make Connemara so famous. This area is a gaeltacht region but not all of Connemara is a gaeltacht region but some pockets keep Irish (Celtic) alive as their first language. It is a beautiful language and music to the ears. Some said once that listening to Irish spoken was the most relaxing thing in the world. I don't know if I agree with that... it sounds more barbaric than German! While driving we had the Maumturk mountains on our right before we saw the magnificent Glencoaghan horseshoe, part of the Twelve Bens Mountains Range (one of Ireland's famous hiking routes). We were traveling in a van and since the girls and I were late in the morning by like 5 minutes we got the worst seats in the van - the very back. So, that meant since we were in bog country ... we were up in the air with the bumps on the road! Seriously... we were bouncing around like crazy and laughing the whole time. It was hilarious. We think Conrad was doing it on purpose. I was just happy my stomach condition was much better or else I would have had a much different perspective about these large bumps! We took a little break in the lovely village of Recess. This is where Alcock and Brown famously landed their plane in a bog after their record breaking non stop flight from North America to Europe. After this, we made our way through the wonderful Inagh Valley, famous for the phone advertisement of losing reception, in a circular route to the other side of Connemara where we stopped at Kylemore Abbey - one of the most distinct buildings in Ireland. The Connemara
was always a popular destination for hunting and fishing and Mitchell Henry became one of the growing number of Irish and English gentlemen who visited during the fishing season. Tradition has it that Mitchell and Margaret Henry visited Connemara while on their honeymoon and it was the couple's wish someday to own a home there. A few years later Mitchell had built a wonderful castle for his wife complete with gardens that covered 13,000 acres of land and cost a little over 18,000 pounds. Sadly, just 2 years after the completion of the mansion his wife died from a sudden death in 1874 
and a few months later his daughter as well died. In 1903 he sold the Kylemore Castle to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester and in 1920 the Irish Benedictine Nuns purchased the Castle as a female boarding school for years but now it is mainly used by nuns for retreat and for tourists to visit. It is located at the foot of a stunning mountain with a lake in front - very majestic. We stopped and took lots of pictures - we even enjoyed a wonderful scone at the little cafe :) Then we made our way to Killary fjord. It is 16 kilometers long and in the center over 45 meters deep - but it is a very shallow fjord. It is one of three glacial fjords that exist in Ireland. We went for a boat trip for an hour and a half on the beautiful Killary Harbour. The "Connemara Lady" took us gently up towards the head of the fjord. We w
ere impressed at all the mussel beds in the fjord and the Mweelrea - the highest mountain on the west coast of Ireland. Normally the boat attracts dolphins ... but we sadly didn't see any :( It was really interesting to listen to all the history surrounding the fjord. I found out that in World War 2 the fjord was a spot of refuge during a huge storm for a British submarine and a German U-boat. Since Ireland was a neutral country... it was illegal for them both to be there. They both knew the other was there so, they just ignored each other since it would be against war-code to start a battle in illegal waters. Ireland also knew that both the boats were there as w
ell... but just ignored them too since getting involved would be a dangerous political move. The fjord has been the home of peace amongst war... so interesting!! Once again, we were not disappointed by this natural wonder of the world. Around 2, we hopped back on the bus again for a trip to the little village of Leenane where the enigmatic movie "The Field" was filmed. This story of the The Bull Mc Cabe really instils in you how land is in every Irish persons mindset. The land is more than land to the Irish people. We found out that the west of Ireland used to be very populated (500 people per sq. mile) but with the Irish Potato Famine in the 1800s ... the region is pretty much deserted. It was weird to think that the region used to be full of houses
because now it is just the nature that is left... it was kind of depressing. Then we took a circular route to the Sheefry Hills for a quick picture before making our way back to Maum and then onto Galway City (for the second time in 2 days). We got back to Dublin around 8 PM and ate, then headed out to the pubs! I can happily say I drank my first Guinness in my first, real pub in Dublin, Ireland. I hate Guinness but I love the Irish people... We had a great night :)The 12th (Sunday), we slept in and were going to go on a run but it was raining so instead we all three played scrabble in the kitchen of the hostel. It was cute :) Then around noon we caught a bus and went to Wexford in the South of Ireland. We were late to the bus and were literally running to get to it... while it was raining! It was hilarious... and we made it just in time :) Wexford is situated near the southeastern tip of Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbor, the estuary of the River Slaney. According to a local legend, the town got its Irish name, Loch Garman (since all the towns in Ireland have two names, one Celtic and one English - actually all government signs are written in English and Celtic, even though less than 3% speak Celtic, it is still the official language of Ireland), from a young man named Garman Garbh who was drowned on the mudflats
at the mouth of the River Slaney by flood waters released by an "enchantress". The resulting lake was thus named Lake of Garman. Wexford used to be a very important Irish Harbor on the east coast but now it is only used by fishing boats and leisure vessels. We had originally planned on going to the Heritage Park located in Wexford ... but since it was Sunday it was closed. The tourism center was also closed so we went into a little shop to get directions to our hotel. The clerks were so nice and drew us maps to find our hotel since it was not in the center of the city... and so we set off on the 45 min walk in the drizzling rain (we were too cheap to get a taxi). 10 minutes into the walk we were starting to climb this huge hill and a lady pulls up to us and asks if we are going to Maldron Hotel ... we all three look at each other and say, "Yes?" She tells us she is going there and she would love to give us a ride! It was so nice and we all piled into her little, euro car with the steering wheel on the right hand side. She told us she was in the store when we were asking directions and had talked to the clerks after we left and wanted to help since it was a really long walk! She was our little, Irish miracle! She was so nice :) It was the best thing ever. She asked us if we were from France or Spain - because of our accents! We got a good laugh about that. Apparently, we are taking on quite an odd accent with our months in Belgium. It was just a beautiful moment spent with a beautiful stranger while we were roaming around the beautiful Ireland. Our hotel was a really good deal but a really nice hotel as well! We just hung out at our hotel for a few hours before dinner - enjoying fluffy pillows, English TV shoes, and free wifi. It was very relaxing. Then we went to this amazing Thai Restaurant in the center of Wexford (we finally called a taxi - and made friends with the driver!). This was our first meal in Ireland that we sat down and actually paid
more than 5 euros per person... so it was a big deal. It was kind of funny that our only real meal in Ireland was not Irish at all... but whatever! We spent the evening eating amazing Thai food and talking about life and how we are living our dreams. It was wonderful. I love my life. After this we called another taxi and went back to the hotel around 10 and watched some TV and went to bed. Classic Mollie, Margaret, and Mallory.The 13th (Monday), we slept in and took a train to Bray at 11. Bray is a town north of Wexford but still on the coast - it is about 30 minutes (12 miles/20km) from Dublin. Bray is a busy urban center and seaside town with a population of 31,000 making it the fourth largest in Ireland. Bray is known for being the place where Dublin middle classes move to in order to esca
pe city life, while still be relatively close to the city. Bray is situated in one of the valleys of the Wicklow Mountains which are a range of mountains in the southeast of Ireland. Lugnaquilla is the highest peak in the range at 925 m (3035 ft). Wicklow is very popular with fishing, rafting, hiking, and hill walking. Bray Head forms a part of the Wicklow Mountains and is a popular spot with hillwalkers (like us). At the top of the head is a concrete cross which was placed there in 1950 during the "holy year". Every Good Friday, hundreds of local people climb to the top of the head in a Good Friday procession doing the stations of the Cross. The rocks of Bray Head are a mixture of greywackers and quartzite. So of course, we had to try out our hiking sk
ills! It was a beautiful day and dare I say... sunny?! (I must add that I saw an advertisement in Dublin that said, "So Irish, I think the Sun is a newspaper" Hilarious.) The path had many different levels one could take depending on the difficulty level... and I think we took the hardest level all the way up. We all three were sweating and out of breath after an hour hike - pathetic. It was kind of funny - one might say religious - when we kept being like, "Oh! I can see the cross! We are getting closer!" When we finally made it to the top we could see for miles. It was beyond beautiful. I'll never forget how on top of the world I felt. I had the Sea on one side of me and the rest of Ireland on my other side. It was epic. We walked a little further alo
ng the coastline and ran into a heard of wild ponies! They were so cute :) We all took a moment of silence at a little concrete wall overlooking the Sea. I enjoyed a chocolate bar after my intense work out! It was one of the best experiences of my life. I'll never forget hiking to Bray Head in Ireland with my 2 best friends when I was 19. Then around 4, we headed back to the center of Bray and caught a bus to Dublin. We went grocery shopping and had a wonderful salad, salmon, and grilled vegetables (thank you Mollie and Margaret - of course I did nothing) at the hostel. We then went out to enjoy our last night in Dublin. We ended up at an awesome pub with live music and sang and danced the night away :) It was a perfect ending to a perfect trip. This is where I
'm going to thank Margaret for her hard work in planning this trip - she really should be doing this as a job! Thank you Margaret :)Tuesday (14th) we got up at 4 in the morning to catch a shuttle to the airport and we were back in Belgium around 9 in the morning.
Next Blog - PRAGUE! This is the last big trip before I head back to the US of A.
I took my Science Sociales test today.... and I didn't study a thing so I didn't do that well. Oh well. She told me I had done well all year and I was a pleasure to meet :)
All for now :)
Love Life
