Amsterdam!

This past weekend, my friends John, Nick, Rob, Sean, and I all went to Amsterdam! It was a really fun trip, and definitely out of our comfort zone.
We got to Amsterdam Friday night, had a bit of trouble finding our hostel since it was outside the city, and a lot of locals thought it was funny to steer us in the wrong direction, but after an hour and a half of walking, we found it!
Saturday we woke up early and went to the Anne Frank house which was right near our hostel. It was really moving to walk throughout the house and read handwritten excerpts from her diary, and actually see and walk around in the small rooms that were hidden upstairs for Anne and the seven other people who were in hiding. After this, we explored Amsterdam a bit, got acquainted with some of the local culture, and then we went to the Heineken factory - which was super fun! It was a really cool brewery tour, much different than Guinness. We also got two free drinks and a taste testing lesson! Also, there was a virtual reality ride of how Heineken is brewed where you stand on a moving platform with a screen in front of you. You get sprayed and kinda wet during it, and it does actually feel like you're being brewed and bottled. Saturday night we also took a nighttime canal tour, which was really awesome. The canals are so beautiful and it was super relaxing to take a boat around them.

a canal in amsterdam

heineken brewery

bottling station

coffeeshop

Sunday, we went to the I AMsterdam sign, and met up with one of John and my friends from Saint Mike's Sarah, who is doing a semester abroad in Amsterdam with the program SIT, and she is doing a research project on masculinity and femininity in the Netherlands and Morocco (she's amazing). We got some waffles on a side street (mmm delicious!) and then went to the Van Gogh Museum, which was amazing!!! He's one of my favorite artists so I loved the museum and seeing the progression of his work, some of his most famous pieces, and some work from the artists that inspired him. Then the five of us headed to a Competition, which the details are not for all readers, so I won't say any more! Later that day,  we met back up with Sarah and she gave us a tour of the Red Light District. It was semi-uncomfortable, but really eye-opening, and Sarah, having actually taken a lecture on prostitution in the Netherlands, gave me a ton of history and facts about the area, a lot of which were really interesting. We then all went out for some Belgian beer and then called it a night.

bikes, bikes, and more bikes!

I AMsterdam sign!

One thing about Amsterdam that was really cool was how many people bike. EVERYONE bikes. There are bike lanes that are about as big as car lanes, and according to Sarah, bikes have the right of way before anything else (cars, pedestrians, trams, taxis, buses, etc). That was pretty cool to see, and I'm glad none of us got run over by bikers, although there were some close calls!

Overall, it was an interesting trip! It was kinda hard to navigate around the city, since the layout of Amsterdam is really confusing, and it's also hard to understand people and read signs/maps in Dutch. Also, the locals tend to be not friendly towards Americans, so that was another hurdle we had to cross. It is such an interesting place to visit just because it's such a different and much more tolerant atmosphere than the United States. Overall, I'm really glad I went, it was certainly an adventure, but I'm also super happy to be back in Cork, with the friendly Irishmen, cozy atmosphere, good food, and all the green!

The Ring of Kerry

So two weekends ago, I went on a trip sponsored by University College Cork's (UCC) International Program to go to the Ring of Kerry. Anna, Katie and I signed up because we had heard its one of the most beautiful traveling routes in all of Ireland. It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend too - which we definitely needed with all of our papers being due soon.
So, on Friday we boarded a super small bus, with lots of German and French kids that go to UCC, and headed to County Kerry. Most of the trip was on the bus, since the ring of kerry, is a circular driving route through some of the most rural and most beautiful parts of Ireland. We had the best bus driver ever, Tommy, who took us on some old windy dirt roads that most tourist coaches aren't allowed to take people on.
We got to stay in a hotel which was awesome and comfy! Marian, our guide for the weekend is a Gaelic instructor at UCC, and she taught us Irish phrases the entire weekend which was fun. She also is a resident of Kerry and we drove through her "town" which consisted of three cottages on about a couple hundred acres of rolling hills and mountains. Kerry only recently got electricity in the past few decades, so it's more rural than I feel most people would imagine.
We got to learn Ceili dancing one night, which was really fun actually! We also had two speakers, one was just a resident of Kerry who told us about her life growing up (it sounded like a history lesson about life in America in the 1920s, not the late 1950s/early 1960s!) It was amazing seeing how life was and still is in parts of County Kerry - very, very different from the U.S. Another speaker was a local Kerry man who plays for the Kerry Gaelic Football team and has won a few All-Irelands, so.... he is essentially the Irish Tom Brady. That was really awesome too.
Besides that we toured the Ring of Kerry. Stopped at the Skellig Experience Center, since we were unable to take a boat to the rock Skellig Michael (which is a monastery on top of a huge giant rock in the middle of the atlantic - google it, it's worth it!), some beaches, daniel o'connell's house (google him!), and a cliff walk/hike, and a few other small walks with some amazing views.
Overall, it was a lovely weekend. Some history, beautiful sights, relaxing room, comfy beds, traditional irish meals everyday - great, great time. Here are some of the beautiful pictures from the Ring:

sheep going up the hill! amazing to see!

Birthday Weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland!

So this weekend, my little study abroad family and I took our first International trip to Scotland! The eight of us, (katie, anna, jenny, rob, nick, sean, john and i) took a cab at 5 am on friday morning (I’m amazed that we got up that early and were functioning) to the cork airport, flew to Dublin and then to Edinburgh!

Traveling there wasn’t too bad. Ryan Air is really cheap so it is annoying to check in with them because you have to get random things stamped by random people that ends up saving some corporate guy money, but together we all figured it out. The landing was a bit rough too... but we survived. Also, by the time we were flying home, I realized that I’m no longer that scared of flying! I’m used to the feeling now, and flying three flights on RyanAir - a very cheap, shitty airline, I’m now accustomed to turbulence, bad landings, and walking without the ramp thing up into the plane.

Anyways…. On to to the good stuff!

We were all pretty worried about what our hostel was gonna be like since it was only 11 pounds a night (super, super cheap!), but it ended up being great! Great location, all 8 of us were in one big room to ourselves, so it was like a giant slumber party haha. We had hot, clean showers, and a single bathroom for us to use – not bad at all! Granted the beds were awfully uncomfortable and the bunks were so close together that even I hit my head on the top of the bottom bunk quite a few times – it was an adventure, and we were just happy we had somewhere to sleep. It had a super bohemian atmosphere and there were murals all over the walls, which was kinda cool. Also, they had no locks…. which was semi unnerving, but we all just trusted everyone there, and no one got anything stolen! We must have had some good karma this weekend.

So anyways, Edinburgh is absolutely beautiful! I finally feel like I experienced a European city. Dublin sucks and Cork isn’t a huge city, so I was amazed by Edinburgh. The architecture in the city is absolutely gorgeous. Tall, beautiful, ornate buildings – castles around every corner (the Royal Mile is incredible!), and “closes” – tiny side streets that look like doorways, but are actually narrow, cobblestone, little streets. They’re super cool. Also, Edinburgh is apparently the most haunted city in Europe, and I definitely could tell! It’s very cold and damp, and the high architecture keeps the narrow streets dark and chilly. Perfect place for vampires. To experience more of this creeeeepy city, the first night we all went on a ghost tour! We toured some creepy places where people were tortured, heard famous ghost stories (the bodysnatchers!) from our hilarious tour guide Alex “Awex” (he had a little speech impediment haha) and finally we toured the city’s underground vaults! They used to be a crypt, and they were really really creepy. Overall, great first day in Edinburgh – we got a great feel for the city. (google mercat - underground vault tours of edinburgh if you want to learn more about the ghost tours and why edinburgh is supposably the most haunted city in europe!)

the royal mile!

Day 2 - the boys went golfing, so the three girls and myself went and got a traditional Scottish breakfast (irish breakfasts are better!) anddd it came with haggis and we tried it…… ew. But I’m proud of us for taking a bite at least. After that, we went and looked at the Queen’s residence and hiked Arthur’s Seat! It's 815 ft high (highest I’ve climbed so far) and literally a walking distance from the center of the city. It’s ridiculous to see such a beautiful, vast, park with such a big mountain/hill thing in the middle of a major city. It’s amazing. Well, after a difficult climb – super slippery and steep – we made it to the top and were so proud of ourselves! Beautiful 360 views of the city and it felt really good to experience some of the Highlands, since we didn’t think we were going to be able to venture outside the city and do a Highland tour. On our way down, it started pouring, so we ducked into a Starbucks, and then toured the National Gallery of Scotland! It was free and dry – a win win situation. I couldn’t believe it was free – we saw so many beautiful paintings! Da Vinci, Rafael, Van Gogh, who is my all-time favorite, and about a thousand more famous artists. It was really nice. That night we went out for my birthday and after a bit of trouble finding a good bar and after arguing with a cab driver who wanted to take us to Glasgow?!, we went to a club called The Hive and had a ton of fun!

the view (only half the way to the top)!

edinburgh!

the four of us at the top of arthurs seat!

Day 3 -  the boys did Arthur’s Seat and we went and toured the Edinburgh Castle – the biggest and most famous castle in the city. It was very cool – saw a lot of rooms that Mary, Queen of Scots and James VI did some famous things in (won’t give everyone a history lesson here), admired the beautiful and ornate interior of certain rooms, and saw the Crown Jewels! Katie was in awe of them and we were all a bit surprised we got her out of the room without any attempted theft…

That night we went out to dinner for my birthday after a nice long nap, and John told the restaurant it was my birthday so I got this embarrassing brownie dessert and everyone sang. I was beet red. Also, my best friend from home is studying in Edinburgh, but unfortunately was away on a trip this weekend – however, she made it back on Sunday night and ate dessert with us and then took us to this cool low-key bar that had some nice live music. We went to bed early, and somehow all got up at 530am, got to the airport, flew back to Dublin, took a nice 4 hour bus ride, and got back to Cork!

the front of edinburgh castle!

traditional scottish breakfast.. that green lump in the back is haggis...

I'm super proud of all of us for pulling off an international trip, basically planning it as we went too – and I’m so happy I went to Scotland! Great time, great sights, great friends, great 20^th birthday in “edinborowwwww” – how our ghost tour guide said it… (we all got pretty silly making fun of him). But I think I speak for everyone when I saw we’re happy to be back at our home, in Cork. Better weather, friendlier people, less touristy (Scotland had tourist shops EVERYWHERE), warmer, quieter, more laid back, better pubs, better beer, better food, more homey. However, any future European travelers out there - go to Edinburgh! I just looked at some travel websites, and ghost tours/castle/arthurs seat are the top three things to do (another reason i'm proud of us! we did a good job picking activities) and i would definitely recommend all three!

Cheers!