Prepare for Takeoff!

Hello from row 22, seat C!

I am on my way to Zürich, Switzerland where I will fulfil a lifelong dream of skiing in the Swiss Alps. 

From Zürich, my friends and I are headed to Berlin. I'll be visiting my Aunt Claudia in Berlin and can't wait to see her home! 

From there, we're taking a (very long!) bus ride to Kraków, Poland where we will visit Auschwitz. 

Lastly, we'll spend a day and a half in Warsaw, Poland before returning back to Ireland on Easter Sunday. 

3 countries; 5 friends; 10 days. Wish us luck and the trip of a lifetime! 

Guinness Storehouse

So it might be touristy, but when I decided to study in Ireland, I knew I had to go to the Guinness Storehouse while I was here. 

When my parents and brother came in February, we spent their first weekend in Dublin and I decided that it would be a fun activity for their first day in the country. 

The Storehouse is within walking distance from where we stayed in Temple Bar and is shaped like a giant pint glass. I thought it was really well put together and I had a lot of fun! Since Brian isn't 18 yet, he couldn't fully participate, but he still enjoyed it! 

On each floor of the Storehouse, there are tons of facts and exhibits to look at, but they were hard to photograph because it was so dark. Excuse the quality of some of the pictures in this post; some were taken on my phone and I'm still learning how to use my big camera!

One floor had what looked like portraits of people on a TV screen, but when you stood in front of them, they began to talk! The first one I approached really spooked me!

One of my favorite floors began with a long, dark corridor. As you walked down the corridor, a delicious smell wafted through the air. The hall opened into a bright white room containing four bowls that appeared to be smoking. Inside these bowls were the source of the smell in the corridor and the smell of Guinness. From this room, we were handed mini pint glasses and ushered into the tasting room.

In the tasting room we were instructed how to properly taste Guinness. They advise breathing in, sipping through the head of the beer, and then inhaling a second time. Personally, I didn't really taste a difference using this method, but it's possible I was too busy taking pictures to really give it a try. 

Perhaps the main attraction within the Storehouse is the Guinness Academy where you learn to pour the perfect pint. To pour a perfect pint, you inspect the glass for cleanliness, hold it at an angle against the tap, pull the tap towards you until the glass is about 3/4 full. The beer then has to set before you hold the glass directly underneath the tap and push the tap backwards to top the beer off. Let it sit for a little bit longer and then serve it to someone else or enjoy it for yourself! 

 Mom, Dad, and I all gave it a go.

We successfully poured our perfect pints! It was actually much easier than I expected it to be! 

We left the Academy to drink our pints. I fully believe that the Guinness from the Storehouse is better than the Guinness in Irish pubs just because it's so fresh. What am I going to do when I get back to America and none of the Guinness is fresh!?

On the top of the pint-glass-building is a 360 degree Gravity Bar. Through the glass building, you could see all of Dublin. I pointed Trinity College and the few other landmarks I knew out to my family. Luckily, the windows were engraved with descriptions of what we were looking at. Even though the views were incredible, we didn't stay at the Gravity Bar too long because it was super crowded and you could barely move. I was lucky to sneak up to a window for a few pictures.

Just below the gravity bar are a few cafes and restaurants. We chose to eat lunch at Arthur's Bar because they were advertising 5 euro Guinness Burgers that sounded too good to resist.

The decor in the restaurant was really cool so Brian and I explored it while waiting for our food. 

Finally, the most delicious burgers were placed in front of us. We all agreed that we needed to recreate them at home. 

We happily left the Storehouse with full stomachs and a few souvenirs. Touristy or not, it was a great way to spend an afternoon! 

Saint Patrick's Day in Galway

As you all know, Saint Patrick's Day was on Tuesday. March 17th is always a big deal in America because all of the Irish-Americans celebrate their heritage and everyone else celebrates the Irish tradition of getting drunk. Before coming here, I was warned that Saint Patrick's Day isn't the same in Ireland.

River Corrib may not have been dyed green, but 'Paddy's Day' is still a BIG day here in Ireland. (I've been told that you would say 'Saint Patrick's Day,' but never 'Saint Paddy's Day.' If you want to shorten it, say 'Paddy's Day.') It's a bank holiday so all classes at college are cancelled and everyone celebrates at the pubs.  

We watched the parade in the city center in the morning. It was very much geared towards little kids and most of the people marching in the parade were under the age of 14, but some of the characters and people wearing masks were a little creepy. If I had watched it as a child, I definitely would've been creeped out! But it was still a fun morning, especially because the sun was shining and it was warm! 

I assumed that the parade would be all traditional music and lots of green, but every minority in Ireland was represented. Marching bands, Salsa dancing groups, and Polish societies all passed by us. It was interesting that in Ireland they celebrate other cultures as well as their own, yet in America the day is based totally on Irish stereotypes. 

After the parade, we headed to Taaffe's for some trad music. Since Taaffe's is famous for their live trad music, it was packed, but we still had a great time dancing and singing along to these guys. They were awesome and even played some SawDoctors! 

We then met up with our Irish friends and continued to pub-hop for the rest of the afternoon. Since it was too nice to stay inside dark pubs all day, we found places with outdoor beer gardens and enjoyed the sun. 

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better Saint Patrick's Day and it's a really cool thing to be able to say that I was in Ireland for it! 

A Weekend in Wicklow

Because Ireland is such a small country, most of the Irish students go home on the weekends. In February, my housemate Sally invited Maddison, Kelly, Nicky and I home with her to Wicklow. We had an amazing time and I totally understand why everyone goes home on weekends. I mean, they get to socialize during the week and then lounge all weekend- it's the best of both worlds! 

Settle in for long post filled with lots of pictures. Maybe grab a cuppa tea if you really want to feel like you're in Ireland! 

After only a 2 1/2 hour train ride across the country, we arrived on Friday afternoon and our first activity was to bake brown bread. In the short time we had been in Ireland, we had already fallen in love with brown bread and were so excited to make it ourselves. 

As someone who isn't a huge baker, I found the recipe to be really simple and the final result was super delicious! Maybe if you're lucky (aka if I find the time), I'll share the recipe here soon! 

We made the baking process into a competition by splitting into two teams. Despite using the same ingredients, recipe and process (and a slight mishap when our pan tipped), Team Kelly and Mary DEFINITELY made the better loaf. 

Brown bread might be my favorite food in Ireland (and I really LOVE fish and chips so that's saying something!). It's great to have at breakfast because it keeps you so full!

On Friday night, Sally's mom, Margo, made us Spaghetti Bolognese that was seriously incredible; I think I must have had three huge helpings. Some of Sally's friends come over that night and we got to know them a little bit. Both Sally's family and her friends were super welcoming to us and didn't seem to mind that four of us were crashing for the weekend.

We woke up early on Saturday to go to Glendalough, which is only about 45 minutes away from Sally's house. Even though we never left Ireland, we did pass through Hollywood!

On the way up to Glendalough, we stopped at a scenic overlook. Even though the fog was sitting on the mountainsides, the views were still incredible. 

We found a wooden trail that acted as a skinny bridge from one part of the overlook to another. Naturally, everyone channeled their inner Beatles.

That is, until I got involved and made the whole thing totally ridiculous. Naturally. 

From my vantage point up there, I could see a deer gently walking through the grass. I was a little scared of it, but everyone told me to take a picture of it. If you look really hard, you'll be able to see it!

After a few more twisty roads, we arrived in Glendalough. When I was getting ready to come to Ireland, I had a guidebook that mentioned all of these places with crazy names and it sort of stressed me out because I didn't know how to pronounce them, but now I know a lot of them. Glendalough is pronounced Glen-da-lock and it's a gorgeous area with tons of hiking trails in the Wicklow mountains. 

Monastic City contains a crumbling monastery and the famous Round Tower.

Many of the old buildings and castles I've seen in Ireland are falling apart (in the most beautiful way possible), but the Round Tower is surprisingly well preserved.

The monastery is more typical of the other stone structures I've seen. The fact that it is crumbling doesn't make it any less gorgeous though. You can even still see some of the intricate molding in the picture below. 

From Monastic City, you could see the mountains in all directions.

The monastery and the Round Tower.

Just for scale: see those little ant-like figures at the bottom of the tower. Those are my friends! Now, I know we're not the tallest bunch, but you can still see how massive the tower actually is.

Now, that thing above us that looks like a big window? That's actually the door. Sally told us that the monks saved the town during an attack because they were able to hide everyone in the tower and then pull the ladder into the building behind them. How cool is that? 

We then took an easy stroll down the boardwalk from Monastic City to the lake.

This charming cottage is actually a visitors center with a sprawling green field behind it. This was also where the wedding in the movie Leap Year was filmed! 

And finally, the lake! Look at how gorgeous that is! 

On Saturday night after returning form our full day at Glendalough, we had takeaway from the Chipper down the road. A chipper is a fast food restaurant that serves deliciously greasy fried food and of course "chips" (fries). Sally had told us about this particular chipper before she even invited us to Wicklow and I have to agree with her, it's the best chipper in the country. (At least compared to the others I've been to). This chipper sells something called curry rolls, which are essentially rice and curry sauce wrapped in batter and fried. Sounds amazing, right? I'm hoping one Sunday night, Sally will come back to Galway with a bag of curry rolls to share! 

On Sunday, we had a full day before we had to catch the train back to Galway. We started the day off at Duckett's Grove, a nearby haunted castle. Apparently, when Sally and her friends were in secondary school, Duckett's Grove was a popular place to sneak into at night and spook yourself out. As much as I love ghost stories, the dense fog was eerie enough for me! 

Despite the spooky feel of the castle, it was still stunning. Sally said that in the summer, people picnic and play on the grounds surrounding the castle. 

Sally's friend told us that she saw a dark shadow in this window one night. I looked hard for a ghost, but didn't see anything. Can you?

Our next stop was Kilkenny Castle. This castle was totally different from Duckett's Grove because it's more of a museum. It's well-kept and decorated with pieces from the time it was in use. You weren't allowed to take pictures in the castle, so you'll have to trust me when I say that it was super luxurious. We walked through the exquisitely decorated bedrooms and the library. They even had a room solely to display their wall-sized tapestries and then another long room to show off the massive portraits of lords!

Once we finished wandering through the castle, we wandered the streets of Kilkenny. It was a lovely town, but I didn't take enough pictures of it. 

We browsed a bookshop and some makeup shops for a little bit before heading back to Sally's so her mom could drive us to the train station.

On the way out of Kilkenny, we spotted this reminder to "Carpe Diem". I'd say we did a pretty great job of that this weekend!

Sally, thank you again to you and your family and friends for hosting for the weekend. We had such a fun time and Wicklow is a beautiful county!