I don’t know why I wait so long in between entries. I tend to forget what has happened.
Saturday night the 17th I looked up plane tickets home and they had jumped up in price again. So I decided to go with Aer Lingus. I convert the price using the converter on my phone and it comes out to 620. After booking the tickets it tells you the American price, it’s actually 740. I felt really bad, if I had known it was going to be that crazy I would have gone with a different flight. And that was after looking for hours at all the different flights and prices.
Sunday the 18th I headed to the library to start on the other question for my history paper. The book I need that the essay is based off of is in short loan. Short loan isn’t open on Sundays!!!! Wtf?! On top of that I can’t find sources for Ireland, I can only find stuff on England. Which isn’t what we’re supposed to have, but there isn’t anything else. But it doesn’t matter b/c I can’t start my paper anyways b/c I don’t have the main book! Which means because Monday is a full day, I got to write it all Tuesday.
Monday I finally got the book I needed for my history class but I only had an hour to use it so I had to just skim through it and chose random pages to photocopy and hope they would be useful. Monday night Aly and I get back from classes to see we have a new roomie upstairs. And it’s an 18 year old guy. We were pretty concerned; the guys here tend to be loud and obnoxious. It’s turned out he’s really not that bad, he’s relatively quiet and doesn’t bug us.
Tuesday morning I head to my Visual Cultural Studies class. The class is frustrating, I never have any idea as to what she’s talking about, and neither does anyone else I’ve asked. But after class I got the new Timmy album, which made my day infinitely better. I stopped at the farmers market with Aly. Then I tortured myself the rest of the day and night with the history paper.
Wednesday I headed to the library to print out my paper and had to wait in a ridiculously long line in order to use a computer. Afterwards I rushed to History and then caught a bus in to town with one of my classmates for our history fieldtrip. We got into town early, which was good, as we didn’t really know where we were going. I took out the map I had brought with me and determined which way we needed to go. But my classmate took it from me and said we needed to go another way instead. He ended up getting us there. And we waited in a pub until the tour was to start. Our history professor brought us around the town and showed us where the old walls dividing Irish Town from England Town used to be and where old people and buildings had been. It was actually kind of interesting getting to see some of the places that he had talked about in lecture. On the tour we found out that we could have walked the way I had wanted to when we had gotten off the bus and that it would have been faster and more direct. Point for me!
Wednesday night we went to Traditional Irish Music Night and then I came back early to skype with Suzanne, and ended up talking to Peyton.
Thursday the 22nd I got up somewhat early and took a long walk with Aly to Dunnes where we did a little shopping (meaning nutella and diet coke). Then we had lunch together and afterwards I headed to class. That night we went into town and had dinner with Kelly and her aunt that had come to visit her. We went to a pretty awesome pub. The atmosphere was great, they put red candles in wine bottles on every table and have live music playing later in the evening. Plus they have really good food.
Friday I went to class like always and then packed for Northern Ireland and had Nacho Night with Aly.
Saturday the 24th I got up really early to get to the bus on time. Of course we ended up leaving an hour late! We drove for hours to finally get in to Belfast. And when we were on the bus leaving we were told we couldn’t wear anything with insignias on it. There had been bombings the week before and we couldn’t show support to anything or anywhere. Of course I only had my Munster hoodie and was told I would have to buy something when I got there.
When we finally get into the city we check into our hostel and find out that we don’t get to sleep in the main part of the hostel but are in the annex. We have to walk outside, through a dimly lit sketchy looking ally up rickety stairs and basically across the plank to get to a cold building with one bathroom for 53 people. Oh and the showers are in the main building. The only good part about that hostel was that I got my own double bed.
We took a tour of Belfast but we had to stay in the bus for the whole thing. We saw a lot of memorials that you’re not really supposed to stand in front of and take pictures as someone might think you’re being offensive and uh.. hurt you I guess. So most of my pictures from the tour suck because they’re all through a bus window.
We saw the peace wall that went up between the Protestant and Catholic sides in order to cut down on the fighting. The tour guide said a little boy on one side of the wall would never play with a boy on the other side unless it was to throw stones or bombs at him. We also saw the shipyard where the Titanic was built. The phrase they use is “An Irish man built it and an Englishman sank it.”
After the tour we walked around the city centre and I found a hoodie and fleece both for cheap and in a nice neutral grey. We got crepes from a cart and then walked to Kelly’s Cellers to get dinner. But they didn’t actually serve food, and it was a 21+ place, and not everyone I was with was old enough. We walked around town but it was so lame that everything but the pubs (not serving food) was closed. We ended up having to eat dinner at Mc Donalds. They have a different menu here- they have sub sandwiches. After we headed back to the annex and I watched the kids pre partying to go out. I made a new friend, Helen, and we decided to go out for a short time just to check out the scene and then we would head back early to get some sleep.
So we go out but it turns out they tried to bring all 53 of us to Kelly’s, which is a pretty small place. We couldn’t even get in the door. We both looked at each other and decided to just go back, find the showers for the next day, and go to sleep. We find out there are just a few individual showers in the main building and we’ll have to get up early if we want to use them. So we head back out to the annex and get into our Pjs and almost freeze it’s so cold! I ended up having to wear two hoodies, sweatpants, and my hood, and tuck my blankets around me to even be somewhat warm. But eventually I fell asleep, although I heard everyone else come back. I got up before most other people the next day and hunted down the shower.
After our showers Sunday morning the 25th Helen and I headed out for breakfast to find that the whole town was closed until 1pm. except one coffee shop, so obviously we ate there. Then we found a tourist shop that was actually open so we roamed around there for a while looking at all the stuff they had before heading back to the hostel to check out. We all piled on the bus and headed to Carrick-a-Rede meaning rock in the road. Atlantic Salmon pass through here on their way west. Fishermen built a rope bridge crossing from the main land to the rock in order to reach the best fishing places off of Carrick-a-Rede.
We walked across the bridge and up on to the rock. It was extremely windy with the rain blowing horizontally. It felt like you could be blown off the rock at any second. So we quickly scrambled down and back to the bridge. We were going to get pictures of us crossing back across but it was so windy we had to put everything away and hold on to the bridge with both hands. After everyone finally got back from that crazy adventure (including the long hike out and back to the bridge in the first place) we went on to Giant’s Causeway.
It was a bit of a walk down to the Causeway in the wind and cold. Seeing the Causeway was an amazing site. But it was so windy and cold and wet that the rocks became a little dangerous to climb and we didn’t end up venturing out that far. I would have liked to get out to the end of one of the mounds but we decided it might not be a good idea. It would have been a fun adventure on a sunny day. We trekked back up against the wind and tried to get a late lunch/early dinner. But everywhere was closed. We walked down the road to the pub and found most of the group already in there. Most of us ended up hanging out there until they started serving food at 5, and just got dinner there. It ended up being a good decision, the food was really good.
After dinner we got back on the bus and headed to Derry. We got to our hostel which was much better than the night before as it was in a place that actually looked kind of like a house. We headed into town with the group and they all piled into one pub. I hated the place in an instant. It was way too crowded and very uncomfortable. I headed back out after pushing my way through the crowd. Poor Helen was groped while trying to get out by some drunk girl. We went into the pub next door and it was way bigger, with only a few people. It’s weird what places people consider the good places. I liked the atmosphere of this place a lot more, and we were able to actually get to the bar, get our drinks (soda for me), and get a table. We went back to the other place at 12 when it was supposed to close but they hadn’t started clearing people out yet and we couldn’t convince anyone to come back with us. So we walked through some pretty sketchy roads as just three girls. Some guys yelled at us but they were in a car so we kept walking and their light turned green going the other way. There was also some sketch looking guy just lying on the sidewalk. So needless to say we walked back quickly and locked our door.
Monday the 26th was the bank holiday here. Not quite sure what that means, but I got the impression it basically means they felt like having a day off in October and picked that day for fun.
We woke up and didn’t shower as ours was broken, but as I had one the day before I was ok. This hostel actually provided breakfast for us. Just cereal and toast, but still! So we ate there and then went on a tour of Derry. But the tour sucked. The guy couldn’t project his voice and basically just told us random political facts about the area. He didn’t tell us what we were passing or why the city was walled or anything. So it wasn’t beneficial, I just have some random pictures from things I saw while walking. Then we had the afternoon to do whatever we wanted to. We headed to the mall and found what I think would be our Nordstroms, they had a café just like Nordstoms does. So we had lunch there and then wondered around the mall not buying anything. Eventually we headed back to the hostel, stopping at a newspaper stand to buy juice and magazines for the bus ride home.
We all got back on the bus and had a long (around 8 hours) ride home. But we watched a few episodes of True Blood, which got me hooked! We got back pretty late and I went to bed shortly after getting home.
Tuesday I woke up really tired and not feeling well. So I skipped my class that morning thinking that I just needed some more sleep. I made it to my evening classes but I wasn’t feeling better and regretted going. I was tired and just wanted to go back to bed.
Wednesday I still didn’t feel good and stayed in bed all day, in fact, I stayed in bed the rest of the week. Even on Halloween I felt like dying and stayed in bed.
Finally on Monday the 2nd I went to the doctors and found out I have a sinus and ear infection and was given a prescription for penicillin and Monday and Tuesday off of school (in the form of a doctors note). Tuesday I stayed in bed for the most part except to do my laundry. And eat pasta with Aly for dinner. (My first real food in a week- I had been eating soup if anything at all)
Wednesday I forced myself to go to my class. During the break before my tutorial I tried to read but was so tired I had trouble not falling asleep. I made it to my tutorial though and then came back and went back to bed.
Today is Thursday, I slept in but went to class and am actually awake with a bit of energy. Not a lot of energy, but enough that I don’t need to go to bed yet. I do have a paper to write though, so I’m off to do that now.
Thing that I miss from the states: Mexican food
Thing that’s the craic in Ireland: Halloween, there was a huge party in my village.
Place I really want to visit: The Eifel tower at night.
Pictures from Northern Ireland Oct 24-26.
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