Dublin has been great so far, and we are really ramping up
for St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow. First though, I am going to talk about what we
have been doing since we first arrived in the city. On Thursday, morning life
at the Kinlay house hostel was how it’s been since. My room of six gets up and
shuffles around each other and our bunk beds in a dance that guarantees that
something or someone gets thrown across the room. We get ready with the help of
the light that comes in from the window laughing at the fact that we feel like
we are at an orphanage or at least at some boarding school. Then we go
downstairs to the lounge/kitchen area to eat a breakfast of cocoa puffs and
toast. We got ready go on our tour of Glendalough(meaning “Valley of the Two
lakes”) which is an hour out of Dublin in the southeast. Glendalough is a 6th
century Medieval monastic settlement that Saint Kevin founded which has a lot
of monuments including several churches and beautiful views of the hills.
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| Church at Glendalough |
So we drove by coach down to the visitor center at
Glendalough and started a walking tour of the whole area. What we expected was
to have a nice day hiking around the hills and eat lunch near the lake at the
valley. What we got was a rainy and cold 3 hour walk that ended with us eating
lunch under a pavilion. I did enjoy the tour but I have to admit it was a
little hard to look up at some of the larger buildings because the rain was
just coming down so hard! I tried to do my best to make the most of the day
despite the weather, which really turned out to a good day where we saw a lot
of countryside near Dublin. We got back into Dublin in the afternoon with
enough time for a good amount of us to grab dinner at a Mongolian grill (which
was a heaven of Mongolian style buffet).
Friday we did the morning routine, toured around
Christchurch pretty quickly, and walked to the National College of Art and Design
for our first day there. At school we were paired up with one student from
Auburn and two Irish students from NCAD, so I am with Jon and my two new friends
Rebecca and Eihon (pronounced Owen). We are creating a rubber band powered car for
a race that the whole class is having against each other next Friday. We spent
the morning getting to know each other and having them tell us where they like
to go in Dublin, and then went to lunch. Their student center here is basically
a hipster’s paradise, I felt cooler already by just walking in. They have an
underground café that is lighted by what looks like different art projects, and
according to one of the students changes its design every month or so. They also
have really cheap (3-4 euros) lunches that are incredibly delicious. Anyways,
after lunch we tried to get some work done on the car but we really enjoyed
talking to the students! After school, we were free to go wherever we wanted so
a bunch of girls and I went window shopping. We had a Traditional Irish dance
and dinner planned for Friday night, which ended up being for fun than I
thought it would be. There was live music before and after the dancing that I
think I enjoyed the most, but the whole thing was pretty fun to see close up.
We also to a pub called The Porter House where we also got to hear live music
and have some fun. The place is three stories with a stage on the second floor
and with an opening so you can see them from all floors! The night was a really
a hit for live music as the second band was also very fun!
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| Christchurch |
Saturday was a free day so that’s when we really got our shopping
on. We first stopped for a brunch around the corner from our hostel, which was
the greatest choice. We then walked around Dublin trying to get the most out
the area we are staying in, while also trying to orient ourselves to the city.
We found Grafton St. which is a huge shopping area and one of many main streets
that offers a variety of shows, pubs, and nice restaurants. We, of course, went
into H&M and Topshop to check out the fashions here and really were not disappointed.
I think everyone in my group ended up leaving with something they wanted! Later
that night, we went out to a Chinese dinner and had a little bit of an earlier
night than Friday since we had an early wakeup call on Saturday.
Sunday was also a tour day but that time it was for the
Newgrange area, which is an hour northwest of Dublin. Newgrange is located near
the Boyne Valley, and is a Neolithic passage tomb mounds that no one is sure of
the purpose for but we do know that the passageways are perfectly aligned with
the rising sun and lights flood the chamber in a beautiful way on the winter
solstice. We got to go into the tomb and had the light simulated for us by our
guide (who had obviously had it with stupid questions that day as he was quite
grumpy). It really was magical and it would be cool to see the actual event,
but even then it is a lottery as the monument has shifted since its original
alignment and now getting to see the light in the tomb perfectly is a lottery
that have thousands of people flocking to the site on different days to see if it’s
the correct one. After we saw Newgrange we went to the Hill of Tara, which also
had significance to the Neolithic people as it is an archaeological complex that
runs over a large amount of ground. We traveled back to Dublin after that, and
my friend and I decided to get Italian food around the corner for dinner.
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| The passage tomb at Newgrange |
Today was a regular day back at school in our groups working
on the rubber band cars. We added some more Irish students to the class so my
group got more and her name is Iziz, and we hit it off instantly! Its really very
fun getting to learn about all the students, so even though we all aren’t in the
same groups we still all talk together. I had lunch with a huge group of just
the Irish students today, and we spent most of the time talking about name
differences ( i.e. aubergine= eggplant, corguettes= zucchini) and what’s
different for school here and there (they don’t take core classes at NCAD, we
take drawing classes, they have tutors rather than professors, and we have more
sponsored studios). We made a little bit of progress on the car, as we have to
be ready to test it on Wednesday to see if it works. We talked about our St.
Patty’s day plans and what they suggested we do, as well as make plenty of
jokes on what we shouldn’t do (note: don’t buy anything while the parade is going
on because you really are just going to get hassled). We wished them well for
the holiday and then went back to the hostel for a quick break before dinner. A
small trio of us decided to walk around for a bit before stopping at a Mexican
restaurant. I don’t know what’s in the water here, but all the food I have had
on this trip has been amazing. Even the Mexican food in Dublin tasted better
than some of the Mexican food I’ve had in Auburn! Maybe it’s just the slight
vacation mode I’m in, but if you are into good food Ireland is a good place to
be.
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| NCAD's entrance building |
So tomorrow is St. Patrick Day and the city is ready, there
are lights and garlands everywhere showing off the Irish colors and people have
started crowding in around our street. It’s going to be hectic, but I think our
group has a plan to get through the day and make it a good one. I’ll let you
know how it goes next time!
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| Temple Bar ready for the holiday |
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