The one in which we debate on how to properly pronounce "Galway..."

Our first Wednesday and Thursday in Dublin were fairly non-eventful and mainly full of lectures. We did see our first theatre performance on Wednesday night: Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel on the Gate Theatre stage. We were required to read the plays before our trip and this particular one was the one I enjoyed reading the most. But it was a severe disappointment on stage. The story revolves around a young woman named Molly Sweeney (obviously) who was born blind but now in her prime years, has made the decision (mainly forced by her husband and doctor) to have a series of surgeries done in order to correct her eyesight. The plot is told in monologue style through the perspectives of Molly, her husband, and her doctor. Molly is first excited about the prospect of finally being able to see, but as the plot progesses, we soon realize she was much better off in her own world of blindness. There is no other scenery on stage besides an empty room, a light, and three chairs. While the story is interesting, I expected a little more from the stage production. But I'm no theatre critic yet so we won't go there.

 On Friday morning we hopped on a bus and took a 2 hour ride to County Galway, part of the countryside of Ireland, an Irish-speaking county, and one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. Our accomodations were in a place called Corrib Village which is part of the student housing at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Like Trinity, they open their student housing up to tourists and guests over the summer. There, we had a TV in the living room and in our bedrooms, I had my own bathroom, and lo and behold we had Internet for 2 and a half days. I probably could have stayed there for the remainder of the trip. Friday afternoon was spent exploring downtown Galway and all it had to offer. Their huge arts and music festival was going on at the time and even though we were unable to purchase tickets for any of the events, the thrill and excitement of the times could be felt all around. We went to several different pubs that night just to listen to all of the music. Galway prides itself on tradition and almost every pub offers very traditional Irish music each night. I think that night was probably one of the best I had throughout the entire trip simply because I got to experience the liveliness of the people and how much they care for their heritage. And yes I danced around a good bit as well.

Thinking on this led me to remember the "dance-off" I had with a young Irishman the night before we left for Galway. We were of course looking for directions that night and there's no one better to ask than a local. We stumbled across some nice Irish fellows who were heading to a pub called The Workman's Club and decided to follow them to see what kind of "craic" was to be had. Conversing with these guys was really interesting and even eye-opening. They said they had lived in Kansas for quite some time and had very high opinions of America. However, they did not have such high opinions of Charlotte, NC and kept trying to figure out more about SC. After some conversation, and yes, a pint or two, I noticed one of our companions was attempting to do the "Twist." He was doing surprisingly well and anyone who knows me, knows that I can't pass up an opportunity to dance so I walked over and joined in. It somehow turned into a "show me what ya got" type of face-off so I showed him what us Americans do best. And of course, I won. Pictures were taken, many laughs were had, and several of us still argue that that was one of the major highlights of the entire trip.

But I digress...back to Galway. The part of the trip I was most excited about was our trip to the Aran Islands on Saturday which will be discussed next.

The Claddagh Ring

This is the Claddagh Ring. It is the Irish symbol of love and even marriage. It is often worn as an engagement ring or as a symbol of one's heart being either open or closed. If the ring is worn with the heart facing down as shown in the picture above, it means your heart is taken. But if you wear the ring upside down with the heart facing upwards, it means your heart is open and you are ready to find love. I bought one of these from a rather lovely man at his street cart on Grafton Street a few days before I came home. It now resides on my ring finger and officially takes the place of the promise ring Coleman gave me that was sadly too big and flew off my finger during our fishing adventure at the beach. These rings are absolutely beautiful and come in all sorts of different metals and some even include diamonds or other jewels. When I look down at the ring, it not only serves as a reminder of my trip to Ireland, but of my love. And the even better news is that it fits perfectly and I don't expect it to come flying off anytime soon. I'm even more proud to be Irish now because they sure do have a great taste for jewelry.

"It was as nice as a jail could be..."

On Tuesday the 19th we visited Kilmainham Jail. I had heard several people in passing talk about the tour of the jail and how hauntingly beautiful it was despite being such a cold and depressing place. I was excited to see it but once I found out that parts of the jail has been used to film scenes of one of my favorite shows, "The Tudors," I got a little more than giddy. The first part of the jail we walked into was the chapel and we learned about the marriage of the infamous Joseph Plunkett to his wife in that very chapel the day before he was supposed to begin his sentence. We then walked through the dark corridors of the original cells and I just felt cold and eerie walking past them. I could not imagine being locked behind a large metal door with no windows. We then walked into the main part of the jail, it looked a little more modern than the first few corridors but still made your spine tingle a little bit. Throughout the tour, we learned about all of the famous "outlaws" who had served time there, including conspirators with Michael Collins. We then walked to the outside of the jail where several executions took place and as soon as we stepped out, I recognized immediately where I was. I started jumping up and down and shouting "Jonathan Rhys Meyers was here!!!" Part of the outside venue of the jail was used as the site of execution on "The Tudors" and I couldn't believe I was standing there. I'm one of those nerds who gets really excited about the smallest things and just to know that part of my favorite TV show had taken place on the exact same spot I was standing was a little more than surreal.

The next day, we were asked by one of our professors at Trinity how we liked the Kilmainham tour and I found myself saying "it was nice." I couldn't believe that I had just referred to a jail as being nice and I'm glad one of my fellow group members spoke up immediately and said "well as nice as a jail could be." It was definitely a humbling experience being able to see the inside of the jail and gave me a much better sense of the history of Ireland.

"This is just so un-American"

Our schedule remained packed all the way up until our first weekend. I remember constantly pulling out our itinerary to make sure we were in the right place at the right time. This was often hard because Ireland uses metric or military time so I was having to count backwards on my fingers to find out what 18:00 was. It was also difficult being 5 hours ahead of everyone at home. When I was having my lunch, the sun was barely up over the South Carolina skies and no matter how badly I wanted to call my friends and family at that time, I couldn't run the risk of waking someone up. After our horrible Monday morning breakfast experience with who we referred to as the "Breakfast Nazis" in the continental breakfast area, we decided to head to the grocery store on Tuesday after our morning film festival at the Irish Film Institute. We found what we considered to be the best of the grocery stores, Dunne's Stores, which became our safe food haven for 2 weeks. We stocked up on breakfast and lunch foods and ended up cringing at the registers. We even had to pay a charge to use their plastic bags because we apparently missed the memo that you are supposed to bring your own. I became a fan of Tuc Craks (similar to Wheat Thins) and Irish Pride Whole Grain bread. This was the only decent bread we could find that did not smell like gerbil food (don't ask). Our breakfasts from there on out usually consisted of eggs, toast, or a scone or muffin from the small shop across the street and lunch was normally made up of sandwiches. Not being a huge water drinker, I had to at least have some type of carbonated beverage to go with my food. I broke down and purchased some Cokes from the store. I was surprised they even sold Coca-Cola over there and thought I had died and gone to heaven...no such luck. Referred to as a "sparkling carbonated beverage with vegetable extracts" on the bottle, Ireland's version of Coke was anything but the original formula and this granddaughter of a Coca-Cola man was severely disappointed. But my thirst had other priorities. While I did drink an insane amount of water while there (due to dehydration and just overall lack of any other beverages besides alcohol), this Southern girl struggled without my sweet nectar of life otherwise known as sweet tea. They didn't even serve iced tea in most places. I thought I could at least pull some makeshift deal and order some unsweet iced tea and pour 10 sugar packets in there. But I couldn't even get that far. Most restaurants only served hot tea and that is just not what you want to go with your Irish stew. Speaking of Irish stew by the way, that was a delicacy that I was able to sample and enjoy. Having never had a lot of lamb before, I was greatly surprised at how much I enjoyed it along with the brown bread which actually tasted a bit like cornbread. I also got a fantastic sample of fish and chips. But you're probably wondering what I thought about the authentic Irish breakfast...well I'll tell you. It's for the birds. I loved the sausage and the bread. The bacon (they call it rashers) was a little too pink and fatty for me. They also don't really like to scramble eggs over there, but I at least tried an egg variety that I never had before. I only got the small Irish breakfast which consisted of sausage, bacon, toast, egg, and two pieces of blood pudding which if you know me at all, you know I didn't even bother. The full Irish breakfast consisted of all of the above along with tomatoes, mushrooms, and beans. Not what you would typically think of to go along with your morning paper, but to each his own.

We did manage to find an amazing Italian place ( I know I went all the way to Ireland to eat Italian) called Pacino's that we went to twice during our stay. Some of the other places we ate were late-night "soak it all up" haunts that served up Ireland's version of good ole' American food. One night was Ray's Pizza, a plateful of grease that I just could not bring myself to touch. Another night brought us to Rick's Burgers, which used authentic Irish beef in a burger the size of my head. (pretty delicious though I must say). Our final night/morning in Dublin, we ate at Eddie Rocket's (similar to the Johnny Rocket's of Greenville). And yes, we did step into a Burger King or two while we were there.

There was a point during one of our grocery shopping trips that I came across a pre-packaged meal that had a label on it saying "Southern Fried Chicken Dippers." Well you know I couldn't just pass that up. I was anxious to see what Irish people perhaps thought southern fried chicken tasted like. Well I'll go ahead and tell you it was nothing like the Colonel dishes out. I went through 3 bottles of water trying to digest just 2 strips. That was the spiciest chicken I have ever had the misfortune of eating. Apparently they were leaning towards more of a Southern Louisiana cajun style chicken but there was nothing southern or fried about it. While it did make for a funny experience, I still can't help but feel that taste in my mouth every once in a while since being back and running for a glass of tea.

Needless to say, there weren't a lot of food options and we all agreed Ireland is basically on a strict liquid diet. But I had a Chick-fil-a sandwich and an extremely large sweet tea waiting on me when I landed in Greenville last weekend and it made the wait so worth it.

The blur of Dublin days

Monday morning marked the beginning of our lectures at Trinity. A large group of college students from Wisconsin and Michigan had been at Trinity since the start of the summer participating in the summer school program so we were technically just sitting in on their classes. Since we were only going to be there for 2 weeks, we were not required to do any homework, but the lectures were really great and extremely interesting. We were learning about Irish drama and literature from some of the most renowned professors Dublin had to offer and even got a few private lectures on Irish history, James Joyce and his Dubliners, and W.B. Yeats. All of our classes were held in the Grand Memorial Building (pictured above) which had to be the most beautiful on campus. We normally had 2-3 lectures per day in the morning and then the afternoons were normally full of tours and outings.

 On Monday we toured St. Patrick's Cathedral and Dublin Castle by way of the hop on-hop off Dublin City tour bus. St. Patrick's has got to be the most exquisite place I have ever visited. The stained glass windows alone were enough to make Donald Trump go weak in the knees. I loved being able to see all the detailings in the architecture and to get a better glimpse at the history of religion in Ireland and to learn about the lifelong rivalry between St. Patrick's and Christchurch. The interior of St. Patrick's is also marked as the final resting place of Jonathan Swift and his lady love "Stella." Swift was once Dean of the University of St. Patrick's and learning about his life and most especially his famous love triangle was definitely a highlight to the experience.

Dublin Castle was also an amazing place but sort of strange in terms of layout. Part of the castle was destroyed by fire several years ago so only a small portion of the "medieval" section remains. The rest of the castle has been restored and modernized in a brick structure. So you've got this medieval looking tower attached to a brick building...quite strange but a beautiful place nonetheless.

Not only were we able to see the modernization of the castle, but we also got a small glimpse at some of the excavations taking place down below in the original foundations. We were able to see the original moat (now full of Euros in true wishing well style) and parts of the original castle walls. I also got to stand in the same room that Queen Elizabeth addressed the people in and was served dinner during her visit to Ireland earlier in the summer. I felt special nonetheless. We also got a great look at the throne room and the castle courtyard, two of my favorite locations in the castle. On Monday night, we participated in the famous Literary Pub Crawl hosted by performers from a great little pub called The Duke. They took us around to several pubs and locations throughout downtown Dublin and recited from famous literary works and plays, most especially Beckett's "Waiting for Godot." Our guide was fantastic and so were the libations :) I hate that I can't remember the names of all the pubs we went to. With the way our schedule was packed and just the rate of the trip itself, all of the days and places seem like one big blur. I wish I had kept a journal of certain things just to remember place names, but I do feel like the most memorable are still with me. Such as O'Neills, one of my very favorite pubs in Dublin and within a very short walking distance to Trinity. We visited O'Neills for the first time on the pub crawl and went back several more times as the weeks went on.

The Dublin Experience

Day 1 in Dublin began at about 7:00 a.m. Ireland time. I had just gotten off my first international flight (7.5 hours) and had flown over 4 time zones and got little to no sleep so I was looking pretty cute at this point. As we were descending onto the runway, I could look out the window and just see all the land and all the...green. I remember saying to Hannah, the other girl on the trip, "Wow, it IS really green here." As soon as we stepped off the plane, I could immediately feel the main difference between Ireland and South Carolina...it was about a 40 degree difference. Getting through the airport was not a problem at all (but trying to get through it to get home was an entirely different story as you may have read in my previous post). The only stop we had to make was through Immigration Services to have our passports stamped. The second the officer looked at my name on my passport he said, "Well I don't have to ask you why you're here...with a surname like Moore I know you've got some family here." Of course I felt special. We took the AirCoach from the airport all the way to Trinity College in what is known as the City Centre of Dublin. Riding in a rather large bus on the opposite side of the road where the lanes are about as narrow as they come was a whole different adventure in itself. Once we stepped out in front of Trinity and walked through the massive front gate, I could just feel the history of the place. Extremely old yet beautiful buildings and statues everywhere.

That sentimental feeling left for a short while once we saw just how accomodating the place was...our rooms were about a 15 minute walk from the front of campus and we also learned at that point that we had no Internet access besides entry into the campus computer lab across the street from our dorm. My heart sank and the small nerd inside of me that is totally dependent on Internet died a little. After being driven to our rooms on the shuttle, we walked in and I realized why I hated dorm life at Winthrop in the first place. Even though we had our own kitchen, my single bedroom left a little to be desired but for 2 weeks, it would be home so I settled in. After cleaning up, we all decided the first thing on the agenda would be to find some food. We walked with our guide down Grafton Street, which is the main shopping street in the center of Dublin. It is mainly a designer area, complete with Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, and the infamous Brown Thomas. After seeing the price tag on some of their "sale" items, I knew not much shopping would occur on my vacation. The exchange rate between the dollar and the euro was historically high while we were there (it fluctuated between $1.50 and $1.70 throughout our stay). I knew that when I exchanged $130 at the airport and got 80 euros back that I was going to be in some serious trouble... Our first taste of Ireland cuisine was at a place called Bewley's right in the center of Grafton Street. People in Ireland must certainly enjoy leisurely meals because this also gave us our first taste of the slowness of the wait for service and food. Since my stomach had not yet adjusted to the atmosphere, I settled for a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with crisps (chips) and a glass of water (yeah there's no sweet tea there...) That was the most expensive ham and cheese sandwich I've ever had and I'm still not even sure if it was worth it. The crisps they serve the most throughout Ireland are cheese and onion, which were actually pretty decent. After lunch, we took the rest of the day to walk around and explore our temporary home. Not being used to a lot of serious walking, especially in a big city type of atmosphere, my legs and feet were screaming after about an hour or two. But I am proud to announce that after only a few days of this constant hoofing it routine, I no longer grew tired from all the walking and running for my life from the cars driving on the wrong side of the road.

Our afternoon walking adventure took us all throughout the City Centre of Dublin. We went through St. Stephen's Park, down to the River Liffey and the Ha'Penny Bridge and we even stumbled across an old Catholic Church that was open. All of the churches (either Protestant or Catholic) were some of the most beautiful I have ever come across. I was even lucky enough to see the chapel where my favorite author Bram Stoker was married. After a full day of sightseeing, we decided to have dinner and try our first pint of Guinness. We chose The Stag's Head as our pub of choice that night. I have to sadly admit that the taste of Guinness was just not for me. I'm not quite a fan of beer to begin with (although I did end up taking a bit of a liking to Heineken while there) but the bitterness and overall dark taste to Guinness left a little less to be desired for my tastes. I did thankfully discover Bulmer's Irish Cider (apparently very popular with the ladies of Ireland) and it became my drink of choice on our nights out to the pub (which was just about every night). All of the pubs in Ireland close at 11:30 p.m. but living the college lifestyle keeps us up a little past midnight so we were thankfully able to locate some late license joints that stayed open til between 1 and 3 a.m. and tended to include traditional Irish musicians playing their wares (one of my favorite aspects of Dublin nightlife).

God Bless America!

I'm safely back on American soil! After sleeping for countless hours and eating everyone out of house and home since Saturday night, I feel fully refreshed and ready to get back to my normal routine. The adventure home was one I did not think I would make it through with my sanity. Being a planner by nature, and often a worry-wart, I had planned out our schedule for Saturday morning's trek to the airport like clockwork. We would take the 6:50 a.m. bus to the airport and arrive around 7:15 which would give us exactly 2 hours before our plane took off for Charlotte. Everything went smoothly until we got to check-in at the airport. The line was wrapped around the lobby and of course we were at the very end. While standing there, I was appraoched by an attendant who checked my passport, handed me a declaration card, and asked me all of these rather insulting security questions. After about 15 minutes of slowly inching forward, an announcement comes on over the loudspeaker calling for last call for check-in to Charlotte and that our check-in service would shut down in approximately 20 minutes. Panic mode ensued. Attendants began coming around moving Charlotte travelers to the front of the line which greatly angered our fellow US Airways travelers headed to Philadelphia. After barely making check-in, I proceeded to security which was a breeze. I thought we were in the clear, besides U.S. PreClearance and made my merry way towards where the signs told me to go. Once we hit PreClearance, I had to prove that I had not borrowed or received anything from Ireland and that I was not trying to smuggle in any contraband or perishable items. After that, I hit another security checkpoint in which I thought I would just slide my bag through the X-ray once more and be done with it. No such luck. The attendant so coyly notified me that I had been selected for an additional and "random" search. And here I was thinking that I didn't look like some sort of threat to society... After going through my bag and dusting it. along with dusting my hands and taking my fingerprints, I was finally clear to head towards my gate (and with only 5 minutes to go until boarding time). When I finally made it to the tarmac, I was stopped yet again by a gentleman in a blue suit asking if I was travelling alone. I was then directed to another man in a similar suit who proceeded to ask me additional security questions before I was FINALLY clear to get on the plane and take my seat. One serious panic attack and 30 minutes later, I was still sitting on the plane not going anywhere. The pilot finally comes over the intercom saying there is a maintenance issue in the process of being repaired and that we would be delayed at least half an hour. Well with having to catch a connecting flight in Charlotte at 4:00, the panic set in once again but we finally took off at a decent time and the second we touched down in Charlotte was probably one of the most fulfilling of my life (besides some of the moments I experienced in Ireland). I had a cute boy and a Chick-fil-A sandwich with a very large sweet tea waiting for me at GSP when I arrived and before heading back to work today, I have been on the couch resting since. The jetlag has not been as unbearable coming home as it was going to Ireland and I have mainly been focused on making up for lost time with some of my favorite foods. Be looking for some picture posts in the next few days. All 500 and some odd of my pictures are uploaded onto my Facebook if you're friends with me on there. There's no way I could share all of those on here but I will certainly be sharing my favorites :)