Staying at Inch Island

           Saturday morning we all got up bright and early to board a coach bus to Inch Island. We drove for about 10 hours stopping for lunch at Foxford Mills, and stopping to see W.B. Yeats grave which has a weird epitaph. It was like driving home to Texas from Alabama with all my stuff at my feet and with 22 other people. It wasn’t too bad because a lot of people slept for most of the time and I had pre-downloaded a movie at the hostel to watch on the way. The man, Tony, who is taking care of us in Inch Island drove all the way down to pick us up and then take us back. For reference on where we drove to, we were staying in Killarney near the Southwest side of Ireland and we drove all the way up the inside of Ireland to the Northern tip which is close to the border of Northern Ireland. So after an extremely long day of driving, Tony drove us up to this house that looks very small on the outside, which actually turns out to be a huge place on the inside that reminds me of the Clue mansion in the movie. The house here which we are just calling a guesthouse, is perfectly suited for students to stay here. There are massive desks in each room and in the hallways with rows and rows of bookcases filled with books on everything you could ever need (and some you don’t i.e. The 2004 top 10 everything book). If students were staying here for a couple of weeks I could see this place as a comfortable place to stop. We are staying 4 to a room here and we didn’t get placed in the ghost room (which I’m still not sure if he was joking when he spoke of this room or not).  After a quick dinner we were exhausted and went to bed without hassle.

W. B. Yeats grave (read the engraving, weird right?

One of the hallways of rooms at Inch House

The sitting room at Inch House

           Sunday was Easter Sunday so we had the day off to do whatever we wanted. I opted out of walking to the Catholic Church with some of the group because I wasn’t sure what I would get. Instead I spent the morning reflecting on the trip and enjoying that we had some free time. Shortly after the morning though my happy free time bubble was burst when we all realized how much work we had to do for this week and next. We had a history test scheduled for Wednesday, and we also have a sketch project going on that is due before we head to Italy in about a week. The rest of Sunday I spent trying to catch up to a good spot on my sketching project and then studying history of Industrial design.

             Monday morning we had 3 lectures planned about the “Troubles” in Ireland before breaking for lunch. The first speaker talking to us was the leader of the guesthouse, Tony, giving us a brief background of the problems. Basically the shortened version, the divide of Ireland came from the division of the Protestant and Catholic religions that have both been the official religion of Ireland and the cause of a lot of problems ever since through monarchs and the people. We had two more speakers from very different worlds who both talked about conflict resolution and what they learned from being nationalist or unionist about the affairs. Jon McCourt, the last man to talk to us in the morning was even part of the IRA and told us stories of how he protested and then became involved more deeply in the matters. After we finished having lectures, we had a quick bite to eat and then went into Derry. Derry or Londonderry depending on whether or not you are a nationalist or unionist is where a lot of stuff went down during the Troubles. We got showed around by our last lecturer Jon, who still lives in the Bogside of Derry and he showed us the city from St. Collum’s Cathedral to the city walls, to the murals reflecting on the Troubles. We had a bit of free time after his stories and tour to get better pictures of the murals (which there are a ton of) and get a bite to eat. Surprisingly enough, and I have tested this in many of the cities we have visited, the Mexican food I have had here is closer to what I actually consider good Mexican food than that of Auburn’s which is where I spend most of my time during the year. I thought I was going to be homesick for good Tex-Mex, but so far I haven’t been disappointed!

The sign for Derry in the Bogside 

St. Collum's Cathedral

John McCourt giving us a tour of his hometown

Mural in the Bogside

Another Mural in the Bogside

              Tuesday we had another tour planned, but this time for the area surrounding Inch Island and the island itself. Tony first drove us off the island to a nearby mountain/hill (at this point its hard to differentiate what distinguishes mountain from hill) where we got some beautiful views of Inch Island and also got to see the Grianan Aileach Ring Fort, where we took group photos (very unorganized and crazy-like annoying some fellow tourists) and basically just enjoying the views. Then we drove down a ways to see the Catholic church Tony goes to each week and that was interesting to see because the whole thing is circular in shape to match the ring fort. We also checked out a local museum that was based out of an old church (which probably would have been better suited for children) and had a tea and scone break before heading to a graveyard to see a friend of Florence Nightingale who was important to the Irish and cleanliness here. We toured around Anne Jones’ grave and around some even older graves with Greek lettering before heading back to the guesthouse. After that Tony made us a huge lunch of soup and sandwiches, and we studied for our test. 3 hours later (!!!) Tony made us burgers to eat, which I would have appreciated so much more if I was actually hungry! This man is spoiling us with his home cooking!

View of Inch Island from the hill (The house is on the right in that string of white houses!)

The Grianan Aileach Ring Fort

Completely circular church we visited ( sadly I don't know the name!)

The graveyard for Anne Jones

           Today, we had our Industrial Design history test at 2 pm so after lunch we sat in the kitchen working on the tests. The environment was weird to be taking a test, but we all definitely studied very well considering that everyone could have a study group here! We had the option after the test to go and do grave rubbings with charcoal and rice paper and pick up laundry, but seeing as I didn’t drop off laundry and I didn’t real like any of the headstones from yesterday enough to keep them, I didn’t go. I instead packed and got some well needed down time away from our huge crowd. Before dinner we had a special guest, Mollie, who played the harp, sang, and did the river dance for us. She even taught some people in the group the (very) slow way of doing the dance. She was so young too, 19 and had so many talents! I think we were all very impressed! Tony then set up a very nice dinner for us complete with candles, tablecloths, wine, and home-cooked Guinness stew. We all had a nice time and have been hanging out since packing, playing cards, and with me writing this blog!

              Tomorrow we have an early morning and a full day ready to see the sights of the Northern Ireland coast and seeing the sights like the Giant’s Causeway which I am super pumped for! You’ll hear from me soon!

Note: You know the drill, read this like it is Wednesday because I didn't have wifi to post this last night (or any night on Inch Island)! You'll hear about Belfast and Giant's Causeway soon enough!

Killarney and Around the Mountains

              We began Thursday with a bit of a flip flop on our schedule. What we were supposed to be doing was taking a bus and walking tour of the Ring of Kerry. Instead, our professor had some worries about weather and changed that plan to be on Friday. What he threw together for Thursday turned out to be one of the best days I’ve had here so far! We went to Killarney National Park by coach and then walked to Ross Castle which has been restored, only to pass it up and reach a pier where there were lots of small boats lined up. We did get a bit of time to explore Ross thankfully after being briefed on when we were leaving, and then split up into two groups on two separate boats. We then moved out onto Lough Leane and moved southwest through the mountains near Killarney. There are a bunch of lakes that we passed through including Muckross Lake, and the Upper Lakes. The sights were breathtaking. We drove around moving through the lakes for about an hour and 45 minutes, once stopping to hike a bit in order for the boat to get through a narrow spot, and ended up at Lord Brandon’s Cottage. Strangely enough, our boat guide nor the people who served us lunch near the spot had any history to say about the place. From what I learned by exploring after lunch, there are some ruins of a stone tower on private property and a bunch of hiking trails leading from the spot but no historical markers. Anyways from there we took horse carriages through the Gap of Dunloe, the gap between the mountains including The Black Valley (who got its name from the fact that this part of Ireland didn’t have electricity until about 20 years ago).

Ross Castle

The map of where we went

One of the boats that took us out

Lord Brandon's Cottage is the white house!

              The horse carriages took us on the 7 mile ride, where we only had to get out when we got to a very steep part of the road where Manhattan the horse couldn’t take us up. We almost picked up another passenger in our already cramped 4-person buggy when we stopped to let Manhattan catch his breath as it was the first day of the season for him. Our guide stopped near what I’m assuming was his home as he was speaking to another woman in Gaelic and in English about the sheep herding and how he needed to pick up another bridle. Their dog Lassie the sheepherder was very friendly with us and when he saw he could get a bunch of petting from us he jumped in to the cart and our guide didn’t even notice until he tried to get in after the dog! Past that, we got to see the mountains rise up around us and see where locals go fishing when it’s the season. Manhattan did a good job at not going too fast so that we could get photos and not have them be blurry! We ended the ride at Kate Kearney’s Cottage (which we also did not get told about) and rode back into Killarney by coach again. Overall it did not rain too much and it was mostly misty, but we got to see so much! Like I said, this was probably one of the best days so far!

Our horse Manhattan taking us through the Gap

The Black Valley

The view of the Gap of Dunloe

               Today, we actually did our Ring of Kerry tour. The Ring of Kerry is basically a circle tour around a southwestern part or Ireland where you go through many towns down the coast and through the mountains like Killorglin, Caherciveen, Waterville, and Sneem. This is a long tour by bus. We left at 10 am and returned at 4:15 pm, which makes sense because the route is so long but definitely was a little bit than we expected. I enjoyed the sights we got to see, because man did we get to see some beautiful places today. We stopped whenever the bus driver felt we should see something, or basically whenever someone from the group wanted to get off and get some pictures of the view. So we ranged from stopping at memorial sites, to coastal views of the ocean, to views of the mountains and picture down into the Gap of Dunloe. We at one point stopped at a mountain view overlooking the ocean and didn’t realize how windy it was until stepping off the bus. I think it was as bad as the wind in Ballyvaughan the day we hiked the mountain. You couldn’t stand up straight but if you did jump off of something the wind would carry you (which we of course did, for about 5 minutes too). I tried taking photos of everyone looking ridiculous in the wind, but even my camera was having trouble focusing because the wind was so strong. So in short the wind was crazy strong, but did make for some good photo-ops when we could get our cameras to work!

One of the places we stopped at for the Ring of Kerry

Ashley, Myself, and Becca at one of the sights

My friend Shari enjoying the slight breeze

                  So the Ring of Kerry works so that you are seeing the coast up until you starting turning back around to start coming back to Killarney. So basically the morning was seeing the coast, and then after lunch we got to see more mountainous terrain and where we had ridden with the horses yesterday. I cannot explain how long ago the beginning of today or even yesterday feels by the way. I feel like each day is a new year! To think its only been a month since we’ve left Auburn is crazy because it feels like we have been travelling for ages together. I am very glad to be on this trip with the people from my studio because I think we all mesh pretty well together, even if we do get on each other’s nerves every now and then. Tonight we had a Passover dinner because one of our group members is Jewish and wanted to share the holiday with us. We had a lot of fun and I learned a lot about Jewish culture and the dinner traditions including the fact that you drink 4 glasses of wine during the dinner! Anyways this has been a pretty short blog today, but I wanted to make sure I got to write about Killarney before we move to Inch Island way up in the north of the republic of Ireland. I’m not sure how much internet access I am going to have while we are staying there so I hope I get to write while I’m there, but if not you’ll be hearing from me in about 5 or 6 days! 

Travelling in and Around Cork

              Monday was Blarney Castle and Blarney Stone day which actually turned out to have much more than I was expecting to do there. My handy dandy Rick Steves’ Guidebook didn’t have great things to say about Blarney Castle and not gonna lie Rick Steves usually knows what he’s talking about, and I’ve used his books a lot over the years. Well I have to say Rick Steves was wrong. He said it was basically a touristy mess where people mindlessly line up to kiss the Blarney Stone. He forgot to mention there is so much on the castle grounds that you can spend hours after kissing the stone wandering around and looking at the stuff there. I’ll give you some background first before going into what we did though. Blarney Castle is a Jacobean 17^th century castle that has stone at the very top, The Blarney Stone, which if you kiss you receive “the gift of gab”. Lots of celebrities have come over the years to kiss the stone, but the claim to fame I think they are most proud of there is that Winston Churchill kissed the stone and then went on to be a good public speaker. Well I waited in line up some very narrow and steep stairs (Like how did they carry trays down those stairs from the kitchen?!) to get to the top of Blarney Castle. One man who went before our group kissed the stone and his little girls asked him why he did that, to which he replied “Well that’s what we do when we are in Ireland, we kiss stones.” Our laughter across the way made him hang his head and smile, but we appreciated his statement! Anyways I did get to the Blarney stone, where you get to hang upside down clutching onto two railings to kiss the very bottom of the stone. They do clean the stone by the way, every few people to make sure its not gross much to my relief.

Blarney Castle

Me kissing the Blarney Stone

              So after going down some less narrow and steep stairs, and seeing some closed off passages of the castle I hadn’t planned on buying the souvenir picture. Its pretty reminiscent of roller-coaster snapshots, but as it turns out my friend who I entrusted with my canon to get pictures of me kissing the stone didn’t actually turn the camera on! It’s okay because one of my other friends captured the picture with their phone but the best one was actually the one they took for me, so I ended up forking over the ten euro just to have a good picture! A cheeky old man then came up to me and asked me if I was the Blarney stone, which means at least I can get the attention of Irish boys but maybe not the ones I had in mind.

              We left the castle area and moved on to the Poison Garden, which sounds way cooler than it was. I have to give them props though because they did include a range of plants included Wolfs bane and Mandrake root (adapted from Harry Potter, the sign said). From there we went to the Blarney House, a Victorian Manor looking house that sadly wasn’t open to the public yet. We did sneak into the back garden near the side of the house, but didn’t really gain anything from our espionage because there wasn’t much but a walking path. We grabbed a really cheap and warm lunch from a café inside the grounds and then planned the rest of our day because there were so many things everyone wanted to see. We went towards the walking steps, which if you walk down them and then back up backwards with your eyes closed only thinking about your wish it will supposedly come true. I, of course did this and it was actually pretty fun because I almost fell about 3 times. A couple people in my group also did the walk, which was as funny to see. We went past to the Druid ruins (dun-dun-dun), the sacrificial altars, and faerie rings which were just kind of fun to see. We took a boardwalk to the Icehouse (a cellar for ice storage), the horse graveyard (so much of a letdown because it sounded like there should be bones or something at least creepy), the dungeon (which was creepy and was like how I think of spelunking probably is like), and the fern garden (which was gorgeous, and I didn’t know there were so many different types of ferns!). After that we headed back down into town to catch a bus back into Cork, and walked through Cork window shopping and got dinner shortly after at an Italian restaurant.

Blarney House

The Druid's circle

The entrance to the wishing steps

The fern garden

              Tuesday we took a bus into Cobh (pronounced Cove), which is the last place the Titanic stopped before sinking and the port where immigrants used leave Ireland from. We met our tour guide Marian who took us along the Titanic trail in Cobh, which does not include that much history from the Titanic but rather the history of Cobh mixed with stories. We were told about Annie Moore, who was the first recorded Irish Immigrant to enter at Ellis Island and who left from Cobh, or Queenstown as it was known then. We walked up the harbor towards the White Star Line Titanic Museum (which I wanted to go in, but was too pricey and we didn’t have enough time anyway). We saw a Lusitania memorial monument, which is magnificent piece in the middle of a main square, and then a Titanic memorial which was a tiny nub comparatively. Then we moved towards St. Colman’s Cathedral where Marian left us in a flurry of historical information and places we should see before leaving Cobh. The Cathedral was beautiful with amazing stained glass that is so colorful and stone walls that are preciously carved into intricate patterns. A lot of pictures later, I was back outside walking downhill (extremely steep!) looking at what people call The Deck of Cards which is a bunch of tightly put together buildings in a variety of colors. We found a café that Marian recommended, and then explored the square we were in. After stopping by the Titanic museum, which is actually in the old White Star Line office and realizing we couldn’t do the tour we were at a loss of what to do. Thankfully one of our group members remembered there was another museum that we could visit which was close to the bus station we had to meet up at. We went inside but also couldn’t do the tour! We decided to just take a look around the historical plaques outside the museum and I even entered a raffle for a trip for two to come back to Ireland (fingers crossed!).

View of St. Colman's Cathedral

Front of St. Colmans

Inside of St. Colmans

The Deck of Cards

              I wish we could have had more time, maybe even an hour, just to explore Cobh because it seemed like my kind of place. Anyways, we all went back to Cork by bus and then had a little down time at the hostel before going into town again. This time we choose an Asian restaurant and the fried rice was so good! Menglin told me that it was pretty authentic food as she had been already and still wanted to come back with a couple of us. We had to finish off our history lessons by ourselves this time around, so after dinner I pulled up the video and took notes from my bunk bed. It wasn’t bad, but it did take a while.

              Today we left Kinlay House Cork by a very small coach bus (we had to cram our bags and ourselves in) to drive a little under 2 hours to Killarney. Killarney is medium-sized town that is west and a little bit north from Cork close to the Ring of Kerry, which we are touring later this week. We are staying a hostel called Neptune’s and this time around have girls with 3 to a room. We already went out for a café lunch and window shopped around town stopping into a couple of places. We went to the edge of town to see St. Mary’s Cathedral and grabbed gelato coming back. We a have a meeting with our professor later today, but I think staying here will be a good time. Till next time!

Staying in Dunmore-East and Waterford

Friday started off as a lazy morning in Dunmore-East as we got up for breakfast late and then leisurely ate since we had no big plans. We ended up doing was making a loose plan to go on a cliff walk near the beach and then head towards the opposite side of town, the harbor, to get a light lunch and explore what was over there.  What really happened was that I left the Haven hotel with a big bunch of people and we took some wrong turns on the roads and couldn't find he path for the cliff walk, and when a bunch of the guys in our group decided to just climbing up the side of the steep hill I bailed with Menglin and Becca. The three of us decided to go to the other side of the beach that we hadn't explored yet and just took in the scenery. It was sad that it wasn't warm enough to swim, but I bet Dunmore-East would be a great summer destination. After sitting on the rocks for a good bit, we decided to continue the plan and go towards the harbor of town. Since its off-season for tourists not much was open, but we did get to have a great ocean view from café we stopped at. We also went into the Spar (which basically works as a grocery/convenience store) and grabbed some snacks for travelling. With our snacks in hand, we walked back to the hotel for a nice afternoon of reading and watching videos while it was rainy and foggy outside. For dinner that night we ate as a big group downstairs where I got to have fish and chips and lovely salad with rashers or rocket leaves, which I don’t know the American name of! After dinner we had yet another history lecture in order to catch up with the rest of the class still at Auburn. That lecture took an hour and we were all exhausted after it. Ashley and I went upstairs to our room and propped the door open because there was live music going on downstairs at the bar that we wanted to listen to but not go into the crowd. It was the best decision because we could hear them very well, but we could be comfortable!

The Dunmore-East Beach

Saturday we had the option of going on an excursion with the group to Loftus Hall which is the supposedly most haunting building Ireland and a Lighthouse in County Wexford, which sounded fun but I also wanted to go into the nearby city of Waterford so I opted out. Ashley and Becca also didn't want to go so we all caught a bus into Waterford at 10:30 that morning. My plan for the day was to see the Historical sites of Waterford because it is the oldest city in Ireland that was founded by Vikings and also go shopping a little bit as some girls that went on Friday said there were some really good places to go. So we got dropped off right near the center of the city and saw Reginald’s tower which is famous for how long its been there, as it is the oldest tower to survive in Ireland- and with a cannon ball lodged in the side too! We went into a 3-story Penneys because the other two girls had not been in one where I surprisingly found a good wallet for 2 euros to replace my travel wallet which was past its prime. We also went into some thrift stores where we did more window shopping than actually purchasing anything. There surprisingly wasn't much open for lunch, as we should’ve guessed (again not tour season) but found a pretty large café where I got tea and pie as a wasn't really hungry. We checked out the mall in Waterford, again window shopping, and passed by the Waterford Crystal Factory and the Museum of Medieval Treasures which we had plans to visit the next day so we didn't go in. We saw the sights and were content with ourselves enough to go back by the bus, but we did have to wait a bit for the next one which came at 4:30 pm. We were dropped off by a fancy restaurant in town and walked back to the hotel were we played some cards (watch out I’m getting a lot of Rummy practice in!) and I wrote a bit in my journal. We were a bit tired from the day, and I still wasn't too hungry so I just grabbed a quick sandwich as my dinner with a side of chilli heatwave Doritos. The time change for Ireland was that night so we all had an earlier night than usual to account for losing an hour of sleep.

The Waterford City Walls Map in the City Center

Today we have done a lot. We started out by leaving the Haven hotel at 9:30 am after grabbing a quick breakfast downstairs where they have been making us amazing food ranging from poached eggs on toast to beans on toast. We left in two vans that dropped us off at the Museum of Medieval Treasures where we arranged to have our bags stored until we came back to take the tour later. We then went right across the street to the Waterford Crystal Factory to take the factory tour there. We took a look around the store first while waiting for a tour guide, which houses some pretty amazing work. We were called and so we walked a building over to the factory where we had a rundown of the factory’s back story and saw the more famous crystal pieces they are known for (i.e. the National Championship Trophy!). By the way, they are wary of people from the University of Alabama as they have dropped their trophies 3 times!

Me holding a scale of the BCS football!

We walked into the molding room which was not in use today because it is the weekend and then moved into where they blow the glass and form the basic shapes. We got to see them process about 4 vases which was really cool because you saw them take it to the furnace, take it out, form a cylindrical shape, put it into a casing in order to blow it into that shape, and then cool it down with water and air in order for it to come off of its base. Then we moved into the area of the factory where they clean and sand the edges of the crystal to make it presentable. Besides the fact that every time the man in there started sanding a new piece there was a terrible loud grinding that quieted as the glass gave, it wasn't much to see. From there we went into the patterning and cutting area, where there were many artists work on vases to make very straight cuts into the already formed crystal which looked very impressive to me. Then we went into the etching area where we found three artists working on various projects that were masterpieces of skill. They use copper wheels in order to make such etching on the crystal, while also using very small tools to create details. Then we were done and back into the store where I got something for myself and my mom. When in Waterford, buy some crystal? 

Molding the glass into a cylinder

Cutting the glass in extremely straight lines

When I'm making bank, one day I will come back to Waterford. 

              We went back to the Museum where we had a great tour guide who was very fun to listen to took us through the history of Waterford and through the artifacts they have. Most of what they have dates back to the 1600s or older, but mainly focuses on the stuff Ireland had around the time when it was conquered by England. We did have the treat of seeing the found spiritual garments of clergymen and models of what the city would look like in different centuries. It was a quick tour, but a good one that really showed me more about the city’s different histories that were influenced by the Normans, Vikings, and the English alike. We grabbed our bags from the Museum and then put them onto a coach bus which we took to drive to Cork. 

The clergymen garments made withe actual gold

Cork is honestly like a mini Dublin. I looked up from reading on the bus and someome said what I was thinking, “Are we back in Dublin?”. We also are staying in a Kinlay House hostel so really it is just like Dublin, but this time we have a room of 8 and a room of 4. Take a guess at which room I’m in. It’s not that bad, but it is tight with 3 bunk beds against one wall and the other wall has one bed against it with an armchair weirdly on the same wall. We figured out who was going where and then had a quick group meeting before going to eat. We found some Mexican place akin to Moe’s or Chipotle to get a cheap meal. We stay in Cork for about 3 nights before moving to Kilarney, but we have a good schedule setup with going to Blarney Castle and Blarney Stone tomorrow and Cobh for the Titanic exhibition Tuesday.  

Carlow and Moving to Dunmore-East

Sunday early afternoon we arrived at the Carlow train station. The train we were on was just a commuter stop so we had about 2 minutes to get all 23 of us off with all our bags. Needless to say we had to rush to get out of the way and cause a lot of problems getting bags down. We had a fairly long walk to our guesthouse which maybe would have been shorter but we were hauling everything we owned. The place we were staying at in Carlow was called the Carlow Guesthouse and was a 10 min walk from downtown Carlow and about 20 minutes from Carlow Institute of Technology. We were staying 3 to a room there and its amazing quality! We had breakfast every morning, which is your choice of eggs and sausage or bacon and tea and coffee made for you. So much better than the hostel breakfast! Once we settled in, we went out into town, but since it was Sunday there wasn’t much open. We settled on a local pub to grab an amazing dinner of sweet chili (which has become my favorite flavoring here, the Doritos chili heatwave flavor is to die for) wings and pulled pork! It was a short night after that because of all the travelling.

Our Breakfast at Carlow

              Monday morning we had our Irish breakfast and then had a van pick us up at the Guesthouse and drop us off at Carlow Institute of Technology. So in Industrial Design there is an unequal ratio of men to woman in the workforce with men always outweighing the women, I’ve never really experienced that type of ratio at Auburn because we actually have more girls than guys in our graduating class for my year. At Carlow, I got to really experience the ratio. In Product Design there they have a class of maybe around 30 people with two girls total! We were given some time to chat and meet each other, and by far these students have been the easiest to talk too. They wanted to know what we’ve learned, what we were interested in doing, and what else we had seen while in Ireland. The professors then split us up into teams of two Auburn students and two Irish students, like before. This time was with Bekah from our group, and Matt and Eoghan (yep that’s another one said like Owen) from Carlow IT. Our job this half week was to observe and record how users interact with and use objects near ATMs. Now we had a talk on ethics so we know how controversial this was, but none of us were close enough to an ATM to see anything. We all played the observer role across the street or at a café half a block away to ensure that the customers had safety in their bank records. We as a group drew up or game plan and decided to start observing on Tuesday in a nearby city called Kilkenny. That night we ventured out again to downtown only to find most places to eat closed again and found ourselves eating Greek gyros for a cheap amount of euros that actually turned out to be pretty good!

Carlow IT's logo

              Tuesday we did breakfast early and quickly to get to school around 9 am. Matt drove us about 30 min to Kilkenny and we ranged in lots of topics on the way there. Side note: Since the driver side is on the right side of the car it was interesting to see Matt drive with a stick shift backwards from what I’m used to. Made me wonder if the pedals were the same orientation or different as well. One more observation was that the speedometer was in miles per hour while the road signs were in kilometers per hour. When I asked about it, someone said they mostly just know the conversions and that the signs used to be mph years ago. Anyways Kilkenny is a bit larger than Carlow in size, and has a castle right in the middle of town. We walked away from it to a square off of a good shopping area to find a café called Bollards in order to observe ATM users. We all joked it felt James Bond, but it was fun. For instance, I found a lot of older people are more worried about the safety of their pins i.e. putting their hands over the pad while typing, but are the most impatient out of the age groups to get their card and money. Or the fact that almost no one put their money away at the ATM, and rather walked away while putting things away or stopped further down the road to put money away. We left town after getting all our recordings pretty quickly because we had a lot of paperwork to do before Wednesday. After a lunch break, we did all the work on the sheets we needed to have done and put our key observations on the wall for the next day. We walked back to the Guesthouse to get a small break before heading back out again to get dinner. Again as apparently Carlow restaurants do not open earlier on in the week, we had very few options we ended up getting Chinese take away and went walk to the Guesthouse to eat around reruns of How I Met Your Mother. I know, I know we live the crazy life!

Bekah, Myself, Matt, and Eoghan ( who didn't realize we were taking a picture!)

              Wednesday started again like the days have been, Irish breakfast and van drop-off at the school. We had presentations of our findings in our groups, which went well enough. It wasn’t hard but it was fun to hear how everyone else went about creeping around observing. After that we had a history lecture from our Industrial Design History class played in the room, where the Irish students didn’t have to come but did anyway. I’m not sure they had too much fun, but some insisted it was better than nothing. We had a break after the lecture to go to lunch which was mostly uneventful except for a trip to the pharmacy for anti-histamines for an allergic reaction to nuts for my friend who realized her mistake right after she bit into her sandwich. We had such a big break that even after that we had an hour before we had to be back at school so we walked to the Penneys nearby. Penneys is a magical place where everything is inexpensive and made with quality that is better than what the prices make it seem. I bought a couple little things and we made our way back to school after that. What we sat through was a 2 our lecture series from 5 graduates on “Design Thinking”. It was interesting, and all 5 people had very different approaches which was refreshing. From school, we took a van home because of the rain and got back to the Guesthouse before it started raining too hard. In order to avoid walking into town in the rain, four of us pitched in to order some pizzas and have them delivered. It was a great decision!

              Today was interesting to say the least. We had breakfast as usual, and got ready to leave the Guesthouse when we had a change of plans. One boy in our group got trashed the night before, and another boy from our group decided to wheel him home in a cart from the nearest grocery store. It was fine until they decided to leave the cart right outside the door to the Guesthouse for our professor to find and question everyone about. What he decided was a good punishment for the boys was to have everyone, instead of walking to the train station with all our bags, walk the 10 minutes back the grocery store with all of our bags to return the cart and then walk to the train station. It was brutal. Getting on the train and sitting down was a welcome break and probably the best feeling I’ve had all day. The ride to Waterford was about an hour, and from there we were picked up and driven about 13 miles to Dunmore-East which is on the very edge of Ireland on the east coast near the water. We are staying in a beautiful hotel, and the room that I am sharing with my friend Ashley has a beautiful view of the water. We quickly put our bags down and then went to explore the cliffs in the park across from the hotel. We then went down the coast a bit away from town to the entrance of the beach where we collected shells and sea glass and played fetch with some local dogs. Our final stop was getting lunch/dinner at a nearby café, which was a good way to end our day out before heading back to the hotel. Later on we just grabbed some beer and dessert for a snack and played cards until we had to leave the sitting area. Dunmore-East is going to be our “Spring Break” destination at the beach, and we don’t have school besides the lectures we have to sit through! Good way to start off our crazy schedule of moving every couple of days! 

Note: Today is actually Friday, but the wifi in the hotel we are staying at isn't the greatest and I couldn't get the blog to go up yesterday! Read the last paragraph as if it was Thursday!

The Haven Hotel ( Our room is the one over the blue flag!)

The beach at Dunmore-East

Badger's Cove right near our Hotel

More of the beach

Dublin Part II

Well here’s another long post as this week has been so full! Tuesday was St. Patrick’s day and it was insane! My room started off the day in a very lazy fashion, by sleeping in and sitting around missing the breakfast window downstairs. We have a great view of the street from our hostel windows so my room and a handful of people (some not even in our group, looking at you random German tourist) crowded around the window sill to watch the parade. It didn't actually get to our street near Christchurch until around 1:30 pm, and because we wanted to be prepared my legs were asleep from being perched on the sill for so long. Once the parade started I gave up and appreciated that I had a pretty awesome view outside the crowded streets below. We had mixed drinks to hype up during the parade and maybe it wasn't the best idea to drink on an empty stomach, but it certainly made the parade weirder than it already was. It was a toss-up on what was really going to come next, you had to guess American marching band, Boys and Girls clubs, or even a random dance group with a theme that didn't match all the way through! I enjoyed being able to say I saw the parade, but I have to agree with the NCAD students when they said it wasn't worth it.

The parade from our window

              After the parade, our huge group split and I stayed with a group of a 6 or so people and we ran at the chance to get food. We all went across the street to get Indian take away and went back to the hostel to quickly eat so we could go back out. We dwindled down even more to about 6 people, and walked towards a fair at Christchurch. There we found even more food that included mini donuts which I shared with my friend Hunter, whose birthday is also St. Patrick’s day. After taking that second food break we headed more uptown towards a huge shopping area near Grafton Street that ended up having great live music by a band of two girls called The Heathers. We stayed around there and then planned our attack for dinner. We had to wade through the bar district of Temple bar again which was littered with people and alcohol to make it to a Mongolian Barbeque that we had been before. After that, to get out of Temple Bar we found ourselves across the river and at a bar called Lotts where my friend Ashley had her first beer and Cosmopolitan. Needless to say, she enjoyed the Cosmo a lot more than her Carlsberg. I had a couple of drinks with the rest of the table, and when we decided we should get back we got to see how fun Ashley is when giggly. I know she is going to be very fun when she can drink.

Ashley, Me, Shari, Hunter, Christina, and Becca on St. Patty's

              Wednesday was a boring day after having fun on Tuesday. We went back to NCAD and worked on our rubber band cars. My group was struggling to really cement an idea so went through a couple of ideas and prototypes before we ended up having to accept what we had last for a trial run of all the group’s cars. The most exciting part of my day was probably seeing that Rebecca in my group has a cordless hot glue pen (which is amazing seeing as its not like a cordless glue gun because those are still huge enough that it doesn't matter and I use hot glue guns a lot at studio!), so if you find one of these let me know because I am all over that! That night we were treated dinner by my professor at a really not that great Italian place, but I appreciated the effort in getting a group of 24 into a place so I was grateful.

Bosch GluePen, consider this wishlisted

              Thursday was a day like climbing the mountain in Ballyvaughan all over again, at least with the step count. First we walked down a couple blocks to St. Patrick’s Cathedral which is amazing smashup of museum like sections, harry potter looking walls with pictures and plaques puzzled together, and an actual working church. I really enjoyed being there and looking around even though a lot of people in the group didn't seem to care since this is just another big church. Then we walked back towards our hostel through St. Patrick’s Park to meet up with the professor who will be taking over for the next 3 weeks, Dylan. Dylan decided to tag along on our big day as we made our way to The National Gallery. We were given the option of The National Gallery which is the big art museum in Dublin or the Natural History Gallery, and I chose the art. There was a cool exhibit where they paired writers with works of art that reflected or mirrored what they wrote about. I quickly found Seamus Heaney and was happy to see the art they paired him with. The National Gallery is very touchy about photography of any kind so as much as I wished to document the art, I couldn't. The best I could do what write the names down and go from there. We had very limited time there, so I had to rush through most of the galleries.

View of the cathedral from the park

Inside St. Patrick's Cathedral

              Next, we took a short walk to Trinity College to see The Book of Kells. Walking onto campus was like getting transported back in time and to a different country. I remarked to Ashley that it was walking into Italy from Dublin and she agreed immediately. We were ushered into the exhibit space, and it was so cramped with people it made it hard to read everything up to the books. And even then, when we got to the books the crowds were very pushy and I only got to see the books for a slice of time. The presentation of the books, I have to say, is a bit of a letdown. They are in a case that you have to lean over to see and the lighting is so poor the only thing you can really appreciate is how much time it took to write so elegantly in color and with the decoration. I honestly had a better time going upstairs to the Trinity College Library and seeing the collections of books, awards, and artifacts they had up there. After getting everyone through the exhibition, we had a lunch at the Trinity Dining Hall which in all honesty is actually the Great Hall in Harry Potter complete with huge benches that span the room. Our next stop was for one of the students, Joseph, to cut off his wild mane and exchange that for a Euro haircut. Really, it was on or official schedule. We all stood outside and cheered when it was done, leaving the locals confused on whether or not there was a celebrity among them.

Trinity College Library

              After a quick break, we reconvened for a walk a little bit further out of Dublin 2 to the National Museum of Ireland. We took a quick peak at the Eileen Gray exhibit, as she is one of the most influential designers of the 20^th century. With even less time I went through another exhibit called The Way We Wore, which was clothing and textiles from Ireland of the past 250 years. Last stop we had time for was a quick look at the replica of Asgard, Ireland’s first national sail-training vessel first built in 1905. The last place we visited as a large group was the Guinness Storehouse, which I did not actually know was shaped like a giant pint glass! We made it up the floors where they explain how Guinness is made, what advertising they have used, and have several places you can use your free pint voucher at. I did get to go through the taste-testing rooms, which you have to make sure your timing is right, and was taught the proper way of tasting a Guinness. You have to breathe in deeply and then while drinking you must breathe out through your nose to get all the notes of the beer. They even give you a tiny pint glass to practice. Eventually, my friend Shari and I made it to the 7^th floor, which is the Gravity bar, and where you can see the whole city from there. We were ambushed by another person in our group who told us Usher was also there (Usher the famous rapper, who really is much shorter in person)! So got our free beers and proceeded to be creepy and also try to be cool about the whole situation. We walked around and enjoyed the view while also trying to get pictures of Usher. Some people in my group even made it into Usher’s photo that he posted on Instagram, talk about cool!

Advertising sign at the Storehouse

Usher at Gravity Bar

              Friday, we returned to NCAD for the last time to finish up with the cars. My group quickly had to make design decisions on the car to figure out what mechanism we actually wanted to use. What we ended up with was a wind up where the front axle is locked into the body of the car and you wind the rubber band around the back axle which can spin freely. At 1pm, I grabbed lunch with Iziz and she told me that the students were going to protest at 1:30pm in front of the president of the school’s office. It amazed me because the students wrote out a whole page of demands and all signed it, handing it to him one at a time telling him if they didn't hear from him before Wednesday they would escalate their campaign. They had a symbol of rebellion and everything! Quickly after they had finished we had our final races, our car didn't do so hot but we didn't come in last! We did get a shout out for building the most prototypes, so there’s something. After that, we said our goodbyes and made sure to get everyone’s info so we could keep in touch.

Jon, Eihon, myself, Rebecca, and Iziz with our car

               Today has been a good day to catch up on everything, as we leave for Carlow tomorrow by train. We've been out and about today and people are also catching up on sleep. It’s one of those rare very sunny days so I think everyone is really enjoying themselves. I know I am going to enjoy the rest of my night, and I am excited that Dublin is our in-between place so we get to come back a couple of times before we go home!