The Beginning of the Beginning of the End

Well with the exception of final exams, my third year of college has come to an end.  This was the last week of classes here at UCD.  Next week is a "reading week" (aka a week for most people to travel) and then exams start up.

On Wednesday for my Irish History Class we had a "gallery" of the posters we individually made about a symbol we thought best represented Ireland's history.  The business school provided us with free food and wine for just standing around for forty minutes so it was worth it.  I got back the essay I neglected to write until the last minute around Spring Break and got an A on it...pretty happy about that seeing as we were told at the beginning of the semester that it's pretty much impossible to get an A on an assignment here.

Saturday was our final API event.  I headed into town early because it was such a nice day and wanted to walk around a little to see some places I hadn't been yet.  I walked along the Liffey to my favorite bridge in Dublin, the Samuel Beckett Bridge, and snapped some pictures.  Although kind of hard to tell in the picture, the bridge looks like a harp turned on its side.

Samuel Beckett Bridge

On my way back to meet up with my friend Tory to finally go see the Book of Kells, I happened to come across the famine memorial right by the river.  The sculptures were fairly disturbing and the expressions on their faces were quite sad.

Famine Memorial

I met up with Tory at Trinity College and we waited in the queue to see the old book.  The Book of Kells was written by Celtic monks and is one of the oldest books in the world.  It contains the four gospels of the New Testament, all in Latin, and is housed in the Old Trinity Library.

Because Tory goes to school at Trinity, I was able to get in for free rather than paying the ridiculous price of admission for something that takes about five minutes to see.  I would have been rather upset if I had paid.

After the book, we walked up some stairs into the Long Room, which is exactly what the name suggests.  It's a long room of the library with bookshelves on the sides holding very old books.  This was honestly more impressive than the Book of Kells.

The Long Room

Books in the Long Room

It was now time to join up with the API group to start our last get together.  We met at the Abbey Theatre, a place I had learned about in my Irish history class.  The Abbey Theatre held the opening production of The Playboy of the Western World in 1907 which caused rioting in the streets.

The play we saw was called Drum Belly and was absolutely fantastic!  It was a modern play set in the 1960s about a gang of second generation Irish men who have come to an agreement with the Italian mafia until a large sum of money goes missing.  The show was very dirty, gritty, and bloody.  Some of my favorite parts were the scene changes.  The actors came out with blaring rock music from the 60's and would throw the props on and off the stage.  Throughout the play, they made an absolute mess of the stage and nothing was ever cleaned up.  By the end, there was blood, vomit, food, spit, cigarettes, rain water, and so much more just sitting around on the stage floor.  It was also fun to hear the Irish actors do Brooklyn accents.  They all did a pretty good job.  I imagine it was like if an Irish person heard an American attempting an Irish accent.                        

All photos of the play courtesy of:   http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/whats_on/event/drum-belly/

After the show, we got a short talk about the play and the history of the theatre.  We then headed to a place called The Church which is a bar/restaurant inside of an old renovated church.  The organ and stained glass windows are still there.  We had dinner here and partook in the first annual API Awards which Eimear had made for us.  I won the "Carpe Diem Award" for my "ability to make the most of every day."  I was quite pleased with this.

The Church

 A group of us then went to a pub where we partook in some fizzy drinks and then I caught the bus home and went to bed.

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-I leave for Nice, France tomorrow morning to meet up with Megan!  This will be my last trip in Europe so it's incredibly bittersweet!

-Only 3 weeks left :(

***A couple of days early but happy birthday to both Grandmas!!***

Save the Best for Second to Last?

I'm exhausted.  My legs are literally pulsing.  I'm a little sun burnt.  I haven't slept in about 30 hours.  I couldn't be happier.

This trip to Poland was by far my favorite since being in Europe.  I don't even know exactly why I liked it so much.  I think it was a combination of the incredible weather, the amazingly beautiful city, and me doing my first solo trip.

But let's start at the beginning...

Who can guess what I did Thursday morning?  If you've read any other posts, you probably guessed correctly because it happens a lot:  I took an early morning shuttle bus to the airport!  The flight to Krakow was about 2.5 hours and on the way in I got to see some amazing snow peaked mountains.  After arriving, I got on the bus that went into town and found my hostel.

Old Town Square

By the time I checked in, I had to quickly drop my backpack off and head into the old town square (about 20 feet from my hostel) to meet up with the free walking tour of the old town.  Apparently all tour guides in Poland have to actually be Polish so it was nice to get a locals perspective on things.  We headed to the major spots around old town and learned about Poland's history.  I didn't know much beforehand besides all of the World War II history so it was nice to know that wasn't the only thing that happened in Krakow.

After the tour, I had nothing planned for the rest of the day so I just wandered around.  I walked by some amazing churches, saw a band playing on the square (had no idea what they were saying as all the lyrics were in Polish), and just sat in different places, people watching.

As said earlier, this was my first completely solo trip and I wasn't sure how I was feeling about it that night.  I like to be by myself but also like to have someone to talk to and experience the same things that I am so that someone knows what you went through.  Looking at pictures with someone is not the same as having them there with you.  My only other issue with traveling alone is eating.  Like I said, I am normally fine doing things on my own but I cannot bring myself to eat at a sit down place alone.  There's just something about it...I can't do it.  However,  I learned that it's really nice to travel alone because you can do whatever you want and no one is going to complain or want to do something else.  I think traveling alone also forces you to get to know a place really well, really fast.  You don't have someone to rely on which places all the emphasis on yourself.  After my first night of walking around, I felt like I knew the old town area of the city quite well.  It was just that first night where I wasn't a huge fan of not having a friend around but after that, I got over it and would love to go somewhere else alone sometime!

On Friday morning, I got picked up by the shuttle group I had booked the previous week and we took about an hour drive to Auschwitz I.  On the way, we watched a documentary about the Holocaust, focusing on Auschwitz.  It was really disturbing.  We got to the camp and were lead by a Polish tour guide around the first camp.  The most intense part was seeing the massive piles of human hair, glasses, shoes, brushes, and many other things that were collected from the murdered victims.  The line our tour guide said that really got me was, "They were not humans.  They were numbers."

Auschwitz I

Auschwitz I

After walking around the camp, we hopped back in the car and made the 3km drive to Auschwitz II - Birkenau which was used as the extermination camp.  The camp was massive.  I believe the tour guide said that it held 90,000 people at one point.  We saw how horrible the living conditions were for those who were "fortunate" enough to be used as laborers and also saw the iconic railroad tracks leading into the camp.  I got chills standing in the middle platform in the exact spot where the prisoners would get sorted after they got off the train.  If the officer's thumb pointed to the right, he thought you looked fit enough to work.  Get a point to the left and you were sent to a gas shower.  I didn't know that many prisoners believed they were going to be taking an actual shower.

Auschwitz II - Birkenau

 The experience at both camps was heartbreaking.

Let's try and lighten the mood a little.  I got back into town and after a quick break headed into the Jewish District, which is just south of old town, in search of a zapiekanka which Wikipedia defines as "a Polish halved baguette or bread topped mainly with mushrooms and cheese."  Mine had salami and garlic sauce.  Not the healthiest thing in the world but SO good and very filling!  I did some more walking around in the district and then around the river.  For lack of better words, it was super chill.

Zapiekanka!

The next morning I headed up to Wawel Cathedral and looked around inside.  There were some amazing views but pictures weren't allowed in the main area.  I also got to climb up the Sigismund bell tower inside of the cathedral.  The bell was cool on its own but the climb up to it was so much fun!  It was kind of like being inside a giant, wooden tree house with narrow openings and lots of winding stairs.

Wawel Castle/Cathedral

Right after the cathedral I caught a bus to Wieliczka in order to see the salt mine.  I wasn't really sure what to expect but Eimear told me it was a must do.  She was right!  I really like caves and so this was right up my alley.  There were some amazing sculptures made out of salt and the mine itself was great!  The most impressive part was seeing the Chapel of St. King which I think the tour guide said is the biggest underground chapel in the world.

Chapel of St. King

Back in Krakow I walked around the Jewish District some more and then called it an early day because I was so tired from all the walking.

On my last day, Sunday, I headed out on the 2.5 mile walk to the Kościuszko Mound.  It was a beautiful walk along the river and then up a steady incline until I hit the pretty obvious mound.  Getting to the top rewarded me with the best view of any I've seen of a city.  Definitely worth it!  I then went into the museum but wasn't that impressed and decided to head back to town.

Kościuszko Mound behind the wall.

At this point I decided I needed to eat and would suck up my fear of eating alone in a sit down restaurant for lunch.  I had heard rumors of this place called U Babci Maliny that was apparently really hard to find but ridiculously cheap (a common theme in Krakow) and delicious.  After scanning TripAdvisor, I found someone who had listed out exactly how to get there and it was great!  This was the first time where there was a serious language barrier.  The person taking my order spoke zero English and I speak zero Polish.  After a lot of gesturing and pointing, I have no idea what I ate but it was really good...something with lots of potatoes, rice, and some sort of meat! 

Next I went inside of St. Mary's Church.  I normally follow the rules when it comes to not taking pictures but I could not resist in here.  This was the most stunning church I've ever been in.

St. Mary's Church.  Picture doesn't do it justice.

With some time to kill before heading to the airport (6 hours) I remembered at the last minute that there was a free walking tour of the Jewish District so I headed over and joined.  This was nice because I got to learn about what I was looking at when I had walked around the last few days.

Holocaust Memorial outside the Jewish District.

After the tour I headed to the airport where I flew to East Midlands Airport in England.  I got in at 12:00 AM and my flight to Dublin wasn't until 6:30 AM so I sat around a nearly empty airport.  I didn't sleep at all so I'm super tired now but it was such a great trip to Poland!  My main reason for going to Krakow was to see Auschwitz but everything else was just as good and I'm so glad I did it all!

I love Krakow!

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Wow that turned out a lot longer than expected.  My trip with Megan starts in a week!  This is the last week of classes.  API farewell event on Saturday.

There Are No Words

Since I've done a pretty good job of posting every week, I feel obligated to publish something today even though nothing terribly exciting has happened since last weekend.  I was planning on doing a day trip via ferry over to Wales this weekend but after consulting with my good friend TripAdvisor, it sounded like you need a car once you get off the ferry to go see the fun things.

I registered for next semester classes at CSU on Friday.  Looks like I'll be taking Business Writing/Communication, Principles of Finance,  Supply Chain Management, Buyer Behavior, and lastly, Marketing Research.  Hard to believe that's my last fall semester of college!

UCD

On Saturday, I finally had the motivation/time to walk around campus.  The business building is pretty much a three minute walk from my apartment so I don't really go on campus that much.  I knew it was big but didn't realize how big!   UCD is a very long rectangle essentially surrounded  by a nature park.  I found the "secret lake" on campus which should really be called "the out of the way lake."  I also found the entrance to the rumored underground tunnels that connect campus buildings but the door to get in was locked.  Another interesting thing about campus is that there are random sport pitches everywhere!  I wonder if the school even knows about half of them.

One side of the "secret lake"

There are running trails everywhere!

The diamond shaped water tower.

Not so secret lake with O'Reilly Hall on the right (where I saw Phantom of the Opera).  The pointy tower in the back looks an awful lot like the Eiffel Tower from a distance.

Other than that, this has been a relax and recuperate weekend.  Today that yellow thing showed itself in the sky and it was actually warm!  I did have to fight against the strong wind on my walk to the store but the heat made up for it.

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With nothing else to say, here's the plan for the rest of my time in Europe:

-Leave for Krakow, Poland on the 18th.

-My last class of the semester is on the 25th.

-The 27th  is our API Farewell Event in Dublin.

-On the 29th, I fly over to meet up with Megan in France so we can begin our trip!  It sounds like we're going to and/or staying in the following locations:
Nice, France
Genoa, Italy 
Various towns in Cinque Terre, Italy 
Verona, Italy 
Innsbruck, Austria 
Salzburg, Austria 
Bludenz, Austria 
Zurich, Switzerland

-The final exam schedule starts on the 7th of May but I don't have my first test until the 9th.  My last final is on the 16th.

-Head back to the US on Sunday, May 19th :(

How the West Was Fun

Well, the last API excursion has come to a close.  I remember at the beginning of the semester that our April trip felt so far away but now it's over!  Hard to believe there's only one API event left.

Our final trip took us back to the west of Ireland but this time to see the famous Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands.  It started with an early morning bus trip over to the Atlantic Ocean where we hopped on a ferry and headed from Doolin to the smallest of the Aran Islands, Inisheer (aka Inis Oírr).  We then went on a wagon pulled tractor and took a guided tour around the island.  I was amazed with the amount of stone walls.  They were everywhere and it almost looked like they were forming a maze.  One of the highlights of the tour was the shipwrecked Plassey, an old cargo ship that was abandoned during a storm in the 1960's.  Ocean waves have since pushed the ship onto the island.  

Plassey

Another highlight was going up to the highest point on the island where we saw the ruins of O'Brien's Castle and got a great view.

So many stone walls

Besides the cold wind, the weather could not have been better!  It was blue skies and sunny all day which made our next stop that much better: the iconic Cliffs of Moher.  We took the ferry again and got to see the cliffs from the water which made them look even more massive.  Along with the rock formations were the countless number of birds.  It felt like a scene from the Hitchcock movie.  We also got to see a dolphin on the way back to Doolin!

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

After getting back on land and a short drive later, we arrived in Ennis where we stayed the night.

Today we made our way to Limerick where we got a walking tour and were able to see a very old castle.

King John's Castle

When the walking tour was finished, we got another "tour" of the Freemason lodge by the grandmaster of the Limerick lodge.  The room where the society holds meeting was a little creepy.   Although the leader said the rumors about the society having big secrets was not true, I wasn't entirely convinced.

Grand Master sitting in his throne with Eimear beside

We then got some lunch in town and got on the bus back to Dublin.

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In other news, I'm going to Krakow, Poland on the 18th!  It's going to be my first completely solo trip abroad and I can't wait!  I already booked a tour of Auschwitz which I'm excited for.  Should be very informative!

Megan and I have been slowly but surely figuring out our week long trip at the end of April/start of May.  Trying to get from where we're going in Italy to Austria was ridiculous but we sorted it out.  Sounds like we'll also be able to get to Salzburg where we will be recreating The Sound of Music scene by scene.  Super excited!

I've got another small accounting test this week and then am pretty much free school wise until finals.  I'm not looking forward to those.