Month: September 2013

By kathleenmccarthy1

My flight arrived in Dublin at 6:15 AM, 30 minutes before it was scheduled to get in (the luck of the Irish I guess).  I took a bus from the airport that dropped me off 2 blocks from the hotel where the students from my study abroad program were being housed. This would’ve been really convenient but I misunderstood the bus driver’s directions and went 4 blocks in the wrong direction. I had a map that I had printed out so that this wouldn’t happen but it wasn’t detailed enough for me to realize that I was going the wrong way for quite a while so what should have been a two block journey became a 10 block journey. Like I said, it was still very early in the morning but my hotel room wasn’t going to be ready until two in the afternoon. I left my luggage with the hotel staff and, after taking a short nap in the hotel lobby, went to explore Dublin for the first time.

I immediately went to the convenience store across the street and grabbed a snack for myself. I thought about killing some time in coffee shop or eating an authentic Irish breakfast somewhere but I wanted to save as many euros as possible and knew that there would be plenty of time to socialize over food later, so I went with a cheaper option. After that, I set out for a little exploring. I came upon a really large park called St. Stephen’s Green and walked around for a while. It was a Sunday so there were a lot of families there with their kids and it was really nice. I also saw these really odd-looking birds in the park’s pond. They were mixed in with a flock of pigeons but they were roughly twice the size of pigeons and seem like a cross between seagulls, ducks and chickens. They were also really aggressive but the parents in the park were still letting their kids feed them. I guess they were more accustomed to them than I was. I definitely didn’t think I would be exposed to new wildlife in Dublin!

As I made my way back to my hotel I stopped at Trinity College’s campus. Trinity is surrounded by a gate but open to the public since it is a popular tourist attraction (some of the school’s buildings date back to the 1500s). I found Trinity’s campus to be more beautiful than that of any university I’ve ever seen in the US. It looks more like a castle than a college. It also really took me aback to see posters that said “Join Trinity’s Kayaking Club!” and “Looking for a German tutor?” on the wall of a Medieval building.

When I got back to my hotel, the room still wasn’t ready even though it was after two. However, I did discover that another girl studying with the same program as I was had arrived as well.  We bonded while they were preparing our room and decided to have dinner later that night. We were both taken aback by how jammed the streets were with people going in and out of pubs and restaurants and how much was going on. When we found a pub to eat at, we stood inside the doorway awkwardly before someone told us to find a seat. We had been waiting for a hostess like we would in the US! We had a very delicious and filling meal, but the best thing about the pub was definitely the live music. When we finished eating we went to the second floor of the pub to see the band. It’s typically for pubs to have live music most or all nights of the week so as you walk down the street you might here a few different performances on just one block.

Overall, my first day in Ireland was amazing. It’s made me incredibly excited for another day in Dublin and even more excited to continue my journey on to Galway.

By kathleenmccarthy1

My first week in Ireland was probably the most exhausting weeks I’ve ever lived through. By the second day, I was too excited to see as much of Dublin while I was still there to feel any remaining effects of jet lag. As the other students on my program were just arriving, I set out to do some exploring; in the morning I went to see Dublin Castle.

The castle was built in 1204 AD and is still used by the Irish government to hold events and host dignitaries. The cool thing about Dublin Castle is that it has been at the center of most of Ireland’s history. It was built after the Norman invasion of Ireland in the mid-1100s and housed many inmates who were imprisoned during Irish revolutionary efforts. When Ireland gained independence, the castle was handed over to the new government and it has seen every presidential inauguration since. It has also seen many European Council meetings while the Republic of Ireland has served as president of the European Union.

In the afternoon, the students on my program decided we should all do an activity together so we went on a double-decker bus tour of Dublin. These are incredibly cheesy and annoy drivers to no end but it seemed to be the best way to see as much of the city as we possibly could. Dublin seemed to be the type of place that it takes a while to get to know. So, with little time to spend there, it was acceptable to indulge ourselves in shameless tourist behavior.

The next day involved a much more hands on activity: an introduction to Irish sports.  Our program leaders arranged for us to go to a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club and learn how to play “Gaelic games” which include hurling and Gaelic football.  Both of these games can be traced back to the indigenous people of Ireland and are very intense, demanding sports. After watching some videos of the sports we were about to learn, I became hesitant about how aggressive they might get. We were taught Gaelic football first. To me, it seemed like a combination of a lot of other sports. It’s similar to American football in that you kick the ball up from the ground but you can also dribble the ball like you can in basketball. However, you can’t throw it or pick it up with your hands so it is also kind of like soccer. Hurling is a lot like lacrosse but the players use paddles instead of nets to get the ball into the goal. After we were taught the rules of Gaelic football they broke us up into two teams that faced off in a match. Even though we were all trying our best and having a really good time, it was still pretty obvious that we were brand new to the game. The younger kids at the club seemed to get a good laugh out of us being such amateurs at their sports. In Ireland, hurling and Gaelic football are games that kids will usually play from a really young age and are followed by everyone in the country. Seeing a group of young adults playing these sports for the first time and being completely unfamiliar with the rules was probably a rare and hilarious site for many onlookers. Even though playing Gaelic games for the first time was scary and different, it taught me a lot and since I will be exposed to a lot of things that I’ve never done before, I should probably get used to doing things that scare me.