The last time I wrote we were just heading off the the Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced kill-MANE-um Jail) for an afternoon tour with the rest of our DBS group. After a beautiful and sunny hike there, we began our tour. And for someone who loves nothing more than a Saturday evening watching MSNBC's "Lock-Up", a show profiling the worst
of the worst in American prisons, the gaol was awesome. We saw many of the tiny cells who help Irish revolutionary
leaders, that were imprisoned (and many of them, later executed). But the prison even held other inmates, such as children as young as four or five, for crimes like stealing a loaf of bread. The cells were tiny, and the fact that nine or more men were crammed into a single small cell (meant for one man) is incomprehensible. We even got to stand outside the gaol in the brick-breaker's yard, where some of the final (and most remembered) Irish revolutionary leaders were all executed via firing squad, about 100 years ago. The picture on the right was taken outside of the gaol... you wouldn't believe how beautiful the weather has been this past week!
We rounded out last week, Friday, with a triple threat of classes: Econ/Poli, Society, and Peace/Conflict. Now all our other days were only 2 classes, so three was definitely a long day. As a former polisci major, I find the politics class the most interesting class, and our society professor is just hilarious, so our morning went quickly. Unfortunately, our Peace/Conflict class ends up being almost a word-for-word recap of other topics we've discussed in previous classes, so I'll admit I tend to zone out for most of the class. Oh well, at least the history/politics lessons are being reinforced.
Friday night was great- our French friend, Max, taught us (Me, Meaghan, Allie, and Anna) how to make crepes, which were amazing. We were even all able to flip the crepes in the pans like professionals by the end of the night, which was pretty impressive. We promised all the French guys there that we'd make American crepes (aka pancakes) for them one night to return the favor :)
On Saturday a group of us wanted to check our Septemberfest, an event that'd be recommended to us by Genevieve, our
FIE advisor/director. Septemberfest is basically Dublin's version of Oktoberfest, except very scaled down. Because all our funds are short, and because Phoenix Park is just a short walk from the apartments we're in, we figured it wouldn't be a big deal to just walk there. Well that short walk to Phoenix Park turned into a 3-4 mile walk (each way!), because I guess we forgot Phoenix Park is more than 2 miles long, and the festival was at the farthest end from our apartments. Luckily the weather was beautiful-- warm, sunny, and probably close to 70 degrees out. It hasn't rained here since early last week! So I'll definitely take it in while I can. At Septemberfest, we all had to wait in realllly long and slow-moving lines, but the payoff was worth it-- I tried a really good Apple Vodka Spritzer, and a Sweet Apple Cider (not as good). We didn't hang out too long, because the festival ended around 6:30pm, and then we began our journey home.
That night Allie, Meaghan, and I ended up making a pasta/chicken dinner for the guys we'd gone to Septemberfest with. After that long walk, we were all definitely starving. Later on, we went to The Church, a nightclub/bar/restaurant that we had eaten dinner at (courtesy of DBS) the previous week. Well as we found out at the door, it was 21+ admission only, but luckily it wasn't that crowded so they let us in anyway. After a pint, we were all craving some McDonald's so we set off to find the 24-hour McDonald's in Dublin, just a short walk away. The burger and fries were definitely a great (and American) ending for our evening.
Sunday we woke up bright and early (not really, 10am) to go visit Bray, a town on the coast of Ireland, about 40
minutes south of Dublin.We walked to Connolly Station, about a half hour-40 minutes from our apartment, and met up with all the French students we were going with. Our tickets weren't that bad (only €5/person if you buy 2 tickets together, or €8 for a single ticket) and we were even lucky enough to scavenge some seats on the ride there (it was packed!). Once we arrived, we had brought our own lunches, and everyone else bought theirs, so we found a nice spot to eat on a wall/bench facing the Irish Sea (between Ireland and the UK). The picture on the right shows our view of the mountain/hill we climbed, called Bray Head. You can't see it in the picture, but there was a large cross on top of the mountain, and we decided we wanted to climb up to the top, where the cross was.Allie, Meaghan, and I weren't sure if all the French people would join us on our hike, but they did. To preface this: we were all wearing spandex/t-shirts/tennis shoes and all the French people were wearing cute jeans/polos/dresses/flats. We definitely felt not only American, standing next to them, but grungy American. Oh well, c'est la vie. Our hiking
apparel was definitely more comfortable. The hike began just walking up a sloped path, but eventually broke off onto a dirt path through the woods almost the rest of the way to the top. I was definitely huffing and puffing (I'm not typically the hiking type... haha), but we finally broke out of the trees and the cross was in sight again! From that point, there really wasn't a path anymore, and we had to climb up some tall, steep, flat rocks to make it the rest of the way up. But once we made it, it was BEAUTIFUL! Well worth the effort-- I could see for miles in every direction. And whichever way you looked was a different set of scenery: to one direction was mountains, another direction was beautiful blue water and sky, another direction was countryside, and another direction was the town we'd come from, Bray. After taking mannny pictures (and even contemplating a nap on the rocks at the top), we completed the hike back down, went to the train station, and were back in Dublin. It was so nice to get out of the city for a day, especially given how beautiful the weather was. I'll definitely be excited to take more day trips like that in the future!
(Note: I have more pictures from Bray in my facebook album: Dublin Adventures!)
Sunday night, after returning from Bray, we picked up some supplied from Tesco (I swear we go to Tesco more often than we go to class here... and we go to class daily) to make family dinner for the other girls, our new Sunday night tradition. Allie made some awesome pasta sauce (as in, Meaghan chopped onions and Allie added spices to the jar of sauce... but it was so good) and I made tomato mozzarella, which, if you know me at all, you know if one of my favorite things in the world to eat. We actually found delicious tomatoes at Tesco, and really inexpensive mozz there as well, so that's definitely going to become a staple meal for me while I'm here. Our dinner turned out really well, and then I think we all had a pretty early night since it had been a tiring weekend.
Also, last night I booked my tickets to Italy on Halloween weekend! Although we haven't even gotten our normal class schedules yet (and we start class in a week and a half!), I was getting antsy and prices were going up. I can't wait to visit Kate and Lianna! And I'm sooo excited for the Tripod's first European reunion this weekend when they visit in Dublin!
Tonight it my friend Ally's birthday, and her roommate Kelsey is making taco dinner for us... something we've ALL been craving, amidst all the pasta we've been eating. AND there will be chocolate cake too, to celebrate. Then we're all planning on heading to this cool pub/club we heard about. So, after a long day of classes, I'm rewarding myself with a nap.
Cheers!
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