Spring Break Part 1

Today marks the beginning of my European Spring Break trip which I have dreamed about for years! For the next week I will be sleeping in airports, taking over night buses, and seeing some of the most incredible cities and country sides in Europe.  Tonight I'm taking a flight to London where I will take in the essence of silence.  I've brought Paulo Coelho's novel 'The Fifth Mountain' to read during my trip, but I will most likely move through it pretty quickly with all the time I will have to relax and read.  I have another flight tomorrow (Saturday) morning to Copenhagen where I will arrive at 10:00am.  In Copenhagen I will get to meet up with friends from Stonehill, as well as Andrew,  dear friend of mine from Belfast who I've known for years! I'll be in Copenhagen until Monday afternoon where Andrew and I will then catch a bus from Copenhagen to Brussels, traveling through some small German cities in the meantime!
Belgium should bring a whole new group of Adventures! My friend Martin, who I met in DC last semester is working in Brussels for the European Commission, so I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing him while I'm in Brussels!

Wish me luck, I'll be sure to try my best and keep everyone updated on my whereabouts!

"Every moment is an act of faith..." -Paulo Coelho 'Brida'

I have been so blessed to have had one of my best friends from home visit me this past week here in Ireland! Michelle arrived last Saturday and this past week has been nothing short of non-stop adventures and amazement.  The first leg of our journey began in Dublin early Saturday morning when both Michelle and I got into Dublin in the wee hours of the morning.  A catch up of life over a coffee was completely overdue, so we planned the activities of what we wanted to see while in Dublin over the two days.  We then did some walking which eventually led us to our first picnic of many in Trinity College Dublin.  The food we ate was more memorable than it is culinarily elite.... by far! We used the hop-on hop-off city site-seeing tour as our main source of transportation around the various districts of Dublin, which gave us the chance to see some great places including St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Guinness Storehouse (where Michelle had her first Guinness...which she pretended to enjoy...) , Temple Bar, the Kilmainham Gaol, Saint Stephen's Green, and so much more! Saturday evening we stayed in the Oliver Saint John Gogarty's Hostel where we met some Swedish and French students who were also visiting Dublin during their break from the American University of Paris.  We stayed around the Temple Bar area and went to The Quay's Bar and the Gogarty's Bar where we got to see some live music playing.

Sunday brought about a painful wake up due to lack of sleep the night before because of the man snoring in the same room as us.... A Continental Breakfast was served from 8am-10am so we got up early and took a walk down past the Dublin Castle, City Hall, and Christ Church Cathedral.  After checking out of our hostel we went to church at St. Teresa's Church right off Grafton Street, where we also met up with my friend Ruth's Aunt Hannah and Uncle Tony who then got Michelle and I into see the Book of Kells for free! Many thanks to Hannah and Tony :) After that we got back on the bus tour and finished the entire tour before getting on a bus to head back to Belfast for the 2nd leg of our Irish Adventure!

Sunday night made for an early night due to the busy Dublin weekend and little sleep we got the previous evening.  Monday morning we woke up and picked up some things for a picnic at the Giant's Causeway! We caught a train from town to Coleraine and then caught a bus from Coleraine to the Causeway... when we arrived at the causeway, it was still before noon so there weren't many tourists out yet, so we had the entire mysterious landmass to ourselves! We did our fair amount of climbing and documenting that we eventually came to the top of the mountain/hills that look over the causeway that we decided to relax and have our picnic.  It was such a lovely day to spend out in the sun, Michelle and I were so lucky to have been blessed with such beautiful weather!  Eventually we caught our bus and train back home to Belfast, where we then met up with my friend Mary for dinner at the The Botanic Inn for Irish Stew.  Later we met with our friend Gary and went to Lavery's for a drink and a couple games of pool.

Tuesday was Michelle's last day in Belfast, but I had two courses in the afternoon so after we woke up and took an early morning run into town then back on the river walk, I gave Michelle a tour of Queen's University.  When I was in class in the afternoon, Michelle and my friend Mary went up to Belfast Castle and took part of the Hop-on Hop-off City Bus tour.  I eventually met them down at the Europa Hotel where I also got a chance to see my Professor from Stonehill and the LC group that is traveling though Ireland during their Spring Break.  Tuesday night after dinner, I took Michelle down to one of my favorite places in Belfast, Kelly's Cellar where I play with a group of musicians normally on Wednesday evenings, but they play on Tuesday evenings as well.  It was a pretty good session, and I was happy to play for both Michelle and my Professor from Stonehill, Richard Finnegan, who also came to see me play for a bit.

Wednesday morning Michelle and I embarked on our third and final stop of our Irish Adventure to Galway in the Connaught Province of Ireland.  Wednesday afternoon we arrived in Galway greeted by our friend Pat and our lovely host, Emily.  After an afternoon of walking around Galway and being shown the NUI Galway Campus and a brief introduction to the pubs of Galway, we made dinner and eventually headed to Taaffe's Pub where we saw some live music.  After we went to Crane Bar where I got the chance to play my bodhran with the group playing there.  That evening, Pat and Emily and their friend Jenny headed off to Liverpool, yet they still graciously allowed us to stay in their apartment.

Thursday we caught a full day bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren Mountains.  I really couldn't tell you all the different towns we stopped at going through Co. Galway and Co. Clare, but our animated tour guide gave us so much information and fun Irish myths and stories about the area and the people, it was a great day! To see the Cliffs of Moher, it was breath taking! That evening we made dinner for ourselves and then stayed in and relaxing spending time with each other!

Friday was our last day in Galway so we started it off right and went down onto Shop Street and found a tea room to enjoy a scone and coffee and a small place called Griffin's. After our coffee we did some souvenir shopping and found some essential Irish gifts including a tin whistle, Ireland tee-shirts, a new tipper, and some bracelets from Ireland, just to name a few.  After shopping we stopped at the store to pick up some things for lunch and such and then ate lunch in the apartment.  After lunch we were destined to head back to Shop Street to find shoes unlike any other that would make Michelle's Ireland Adventure complete!  To celebrate such a purchase we had an Irish Coffee at Tig Coili.  After we took one last walk down the 'Long Walk' and then headed home to relax and then pack and make dinner.  After dinner we headed out to The Crane Bar hoping for live Irish music, but because it was so crazy, we went to The Kings Head where there was a live band.  It was nice to be at that bar because it stayed open later than most other pubs in Galway (most close at midnight).

Saturday we woke up to catch a 6:30am bus to Dublin for Michelle to catch her noon flight back home, and I later met up with friends from Stonehill for lunch in Dublin.

Overall, it was such a great visit to have Michelle experience Ireland and Northern Ireland with me! As she's on her journey home now, I hope she never forgets the great time she had here on the Emerald Island!

It's March....Already?!

I can't believe it's already March, time is flying! I obviously have some explaining to do, since I haven't updated this blog in awhile, but don't worry I can explain.

This past weekend (26-28 February) I went down to Dublin with a flat mate of mine, Ruth. Ruth is from Toronto, Canada, and is studying drama and economics.  She has an aunt who lives in Dublin finishing a bachelors degree in Philosophy/Religion, so we stayed at her aunt and uncle's home.  Having some 'in's' with the younger crowd in Dublin, Ruth's aunt Hannah spoke with students from her course and they invited to a club where this student was DJ'ing.  Ruth and I arrived down to Dublin and had dinner and caught up with Hannah and her husband, Tony.  After dinner, Tony took Ruth and I down to Temple Bar where we stopped at THE Temple Bar for a drink.  This bar was pretty obviously a popular place for tourists because we were not alone.  Norwegians, French, Germans, Americans, Canadians, etc. it was a nice bar with so much going on.  We did manage to meet some Irish artists (sculptor and carpenter) and some of their friends who were very welcoming and like most Irish, very kind and happy to meet people from around the world.  Eventually, Ruth and I made our way to the club that Hannah's classmate was DJ'ing at and we got to meet Sarah, the DJ, and we stayed there for awhile dancing and enjoying the music.  Coming home, we crashed, but woke up to a hot pot of tea and an Irish fry.

Saturday we wanted to get the most out of our day, so we got up early and Tony had offered to make us bacon, sausage, toast, and eggs, and honestly, how could you refuse!? It was a delicious and filling breakfast which set us off to a great day in the city where we spent hours walking and enjoying the beautiful SUN that actually decided to come out! We spent most of our day just walking around looking at the different parts of the city like Temple Bar, Grafton Street (above right), and Trinity College, but eventually took a rest at a place called Bewley's Oriental Cafe (above left; which actually used to be an old bookstore where the Trinity College students would go and read for hours) which is located right on Grafton Street in a beautiful old building! We had tea and a scone and rested our feet there after our day of strolling through Saint Stephen's Green and checking out the various sculptures and Gazebo's placed throughout the gardens.

Finally making our way home, Ruth and I helped Hannah make some dinner and I got to meet Ruth's cousin Marcus who spoke to us for most of the evening about everything from Lost to Irish Politics.  We stayed in and watch the film, Milk with Marcus and then got up the next morning and went to church then hoped back on the bus to go back up to Belfast.....quite the trip!

Yet Sunday didn't end then, there was a benefit concert for Haiti called Folk for Haiti where 15 bands came together on Sunday and played from 2pm until midnight. I couldn't make it there until later, but even for the portion I saw was incredible. Some of the most talented musicians I have ever seen, it's crazy to believe that most of these musicians really only ever play in pubs during sessions when they're that talented, but I guess in Ireland, it's just tradition.  And that's exactly what the music was, tradition, which has been kept alive through the pub sessions and culture which makes Ireland so unique.

My week has now continued with courses and work and lots and lots of reading, but this week, all my hard work will pay off with the visit from my best friend from home, Michelle visiting! Tomorrow (Saturday) I will catch an early morning bus down to Dublin to meet and show her everything great about Dublin, then we'll come up to Belfast for a couple days before heading down to Galway to visit other friends and see some country side in Ireland!