The only downfall to not having classes on Monday is having absolutely nothing else to do on Mondays. If I had the motivation to actually read for my classes, I might not be so bored, but let's be realistic... My motivation to do just about anything has drastically decreased over the last couple of weeks. These Irish students really have a horrible influence on me. But last week I played catch up and got a lot accomplished. And once I break free from my lazy weekend attitude, I'll probably try to get some stuff done this week. We'll see...
Time to recap the last few weeks. As usual, there is nothing to report from my time in school unless you want to the hear mundane details of my lectures and tutorials. The more interesting stuff that I can report all happens over the weekends.
Between the the 27th of February and the 1st of March, I was in a different country for the first time! Ok, so it was still on the same little island, but since I went to the northern end, I was technically in the UK. Not too much is different other than the currency and seeing more Union Jacks than normal.
We UL kids (all nine of us) loaded onto a giant yellow charter bus and headed to Dublin to pick up more Arcadia kids (Arcadia being the program that I used to come to study abroad). From there we headed to Maynooth (the location of which I am still unaware) to pick up some more, and with a full bus continued on to Belfast. The trip was ridiculously long for us, since we loaded the bus at 9:45 and didn't arrive until after 6:30. We saw a LOT of sheep along the way.
On our first full day in the Northern Ireland, we all went to the Giant's Causeway. It was fantastically gorgeous and probably the most beautiful place I've seen so far in Ireland, and that's saying something. Along the beach there are a bajillion huge flat, 6-sided rocks that all fit together perfectly to form this huge stone area.
It's beautiful and also slippery as heck. Why do I keep going to all of these amazing-yet-dangerous places? Sooner or later I'm going to succumb to my clumsiness and be seriously injured. It's only a matter of time.
After slipping around on the beach for a sufficient amount of time we headed on the path up to the top of the cliffs overlooking the Causeway. Saying that the climb up there was a workout is an understatement.
But right as I was climbing up the last few of the 32,906,234,562 stairs to the top, the sun came out in order to better illustrate how unbelievably beautiful the whole area was.
Like I said, gorgeous. It looked like we were in the Bahamas or something. Too bad the nearest neighbor to the north was actually Iceland...
Our trip to the Giant's Causeway will always be remembered by me not as only one of the most beautiful spots in Ireland, but also as the day where I had to pee worse than ever before. I spent the entire time - from the start our decent to the beaches, to hopping from stone to stone, to posing for countless pictures, to climbing up a freaking mountain, to lying in the grass next to the edge of a cliff - in the tremendous, life-or-death need for a bathroom. The constant swooshing of the waves as they came in off the ocean didn't do much to help the situation. I mean, I am all for preserving the beauty of that area, but I can't see how installing a Port-a-Potty behind a rock wall somewhere down near the beach would completely ruin the aesthetics! But finally, after over three hours, we headed back to the visitors' center, where I found salvation in ceramic form.
We departed to go back to Belfast and were able to do a bit of shopping before the shops closed. This whole European trend for closing the stores down at 6 really doesn't suit my tastes... On our way back to our hostel, some of the girls and I rode the ferris wheel right next to the city hall.
On Sunday we were treated to a lecture by a local Professor who has spent his life studying the murals that cover so many walls in Belfast. His presentation on the Troubles in Northern Ireland was extremely interesting, and on our bus tour of the city a few hours later, we were able to see some of the murals close up.
It's difficult to imagine that only over a decade ago, this entire city was at war with itself. The murals, along with the two-story tall, barbed-wire "peace" wall dividing the Loyalists from the Nationalists, serve as sort of eerie reminders of how far the city has come, but also how easily it could fall back into such a violent down-spiral. (If you haven't heard, two British soldiers at a base in Antrim were killed and four others were injured by members of the Real IRA just a couple of days ago, re-sparking a lot of tension for the people in Northern Ireland.)
Finally we headed home, getting back to Limerick around 10PM. The week of school that followed was pretty unremarkable, other than the random snow that fell in wet heaps on Wednesday morning. Two friends and I did, however, finally take advantage of UL's indoor 50-meter pool and went swimming Thursday night after our aerobics class. It was (not including the embarrassing swim-cap) a great time and a good way to relax after a day of sitting in the classroom.
On Friday Rachel (my roommate from last semester at MU) and two of her friends flew in for a visit from Paris! It was lovely to have them here. We did a bit of food shopping on Friday after I met them in town, and then came back to my place and made pizza (a tradition of ours from Mondays in Columbia).
The next day we decided to go to the nearby town of Adare, which is supposed to be one of the most picturesque villages in Ireland. It did not disappoint. It was completely adorable, really relaxed, and had everything a quaint little Irish village should:
Thatched roofs? Check!
Adorable park? Check.
Huge amazing manor? Triple check.
We even stopped in a local cafe for drinks. I opted for good ol' hot chocolate.
After arriving back in town we all went to a pub called Dolan's to get fish and chips and watch the Rugby match. They wanted the authentic Irish experience.
They left on Sunday after we went on a stroll along the river and through the countryside surrounding the campus. Only in Ireland do you wander by random tower ruins while on a walk...
